Delhi Police summons Jacqueline Fernandez's costume designer in Rs 200-cr money laundering case
Sep 20, 2022
New Delhi [India], September 20 : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police summoned Leepakshi Ellawadi, the costume designer of Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez on Wednesday in connection with the Rs 200-crore money laundering case involving conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar.
Leepakshi, who was earlier summoned on Monday, had skipped questioning, citing health reasons.
On Monday, Jacqueline had appeared before Delhi Police's EOW, for the second time. Police had summoned Leepakshi on the same day in order to confront her with the actor. However, Leepakshi did not appear and was given time for Wednesday.
On Monday, Jacqueline was questioned about the money trail of the gifts given by Sukesh Chandrashekhar and the diversion of funds. Further investigation on this matter will be done once Leepakshi joins the probe, a senior police official told ANI.
She also gave Delhi Police a list of items that she had received from Sukesh, which allegedly were bought from the money he had extorted from Aditi Singh, the wife of jailed former Ranbaxy owner Shivinder Singh.
According to EOW sources, Jacqueline was questioned regarding the chartered flight ride booked by conman Sukesh for her. The actor accepted that she has earlier counted on him for chartered flight rides not once but multiple times.
Earlier on September 14, Jacqueline appeared before the EOW of Delhi Police in connection with the case. She was confronted with Pinky Irani, who appeared to have introduced the actor to Sukesh.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) named Jacqueline in their chargesheet in the money laundering case that involves Sukesh.
The probe agency chargesheet stated that actor Jacqueline knew about Sukesh's involvement in criminal cases but she chose to overlook his criminal past and got involved in financial transactions with him. ED had registered a money laundering case in the alleged scam over the FIR registered by the Delhi Police. The agency had earlier stated that Fernandez's statements were recorded on August 30 and October 20, 2021, where she admitted to having received gifts from Chandrashekar.
It also said that Fernandez had used proceeds of crime and bought valuable gifts for herself and her family members in India as well as abroad which amounts to an offence of money laundering under section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002.
Sukesh Chandrashekhar, a native of Bengaluru in Karnataka, is currently lodged in a Delhi jail and faces over 10 criminal cases registered against him.
Chandrashekhar has been accused of extorting Rs 200 crore when he was lodged in Rohini jail, from Aditi Singh, the wife of jailed former Ranbaxy owner Shivinder Singh, while posing as an official from the union law ministry and the PMO, on the pretext of getting her husband out on bail.
