In its chargesheet, the Enforcement Directorate claimed that Jacqueline Fernandez knew about the criminal past of conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and "made up a false story" to escape the scrutiny of investigators looking into a multi-million dollar money laundering case. According to the chargesheet that NDTV has access to, Fernandez's allegation that she was unaware of Sukesh Chandrashekhar's legal issues is false. The chargesheet claims that in February 2021, "Jacqueline Fernandez was well aware about the criminal antecedents of Sukesh Chandrashekhar and also the fact that Leena Maria Paul is his wife in February 2021".
It reads, "She consciously chose to overlook his criminal past and continued to indulge in financial transactions with him". In February 2021, she learned about Sukesh Chandrashekhar's identity and criminal past from her hairdresser Shaan. "Despite this, Jacqueline Fernandez ignored the fact and continued the relationship with Sukesh and also received, used and enjoyed the financial benefits from Sukesh, which are nothing but proceeds of crime", said the agency.
Jacqueline was identified as an accused earlier this month by the ED, while looking into the money trail in a 200 crore rupee extortion case against the conman. According to the chargesheet, the actress acknowledged accepting presents from the conman that included five watches, nine paintings, 20 pieces of jewelry, 32 bags, 47 dresses, 65 pairs of shoes, 4 Hermes bags and a Versace crockery set. The agency also claimed that Sukesh Chandrashekhar gave Jacqueline's parents two automobiles in April 2021, a gift that she failed to mention when questioned. She refused to acknowledge that Sukesh had given her a property in Welgana, Sri Lanka, until he had shown her with proof.
Jacqueline Fernandez "was knowingly a party or actively participating in the process (money laundering) by using or enjoying the proceeds of crime by form of valuable presents," the agency claims, "despite being fully aware of his criminal history and that he is detained in Tihar Jail." She allegedly also asked her staff to delete any information on the conman that was on their phone.
According to the Enforcement Directorate, Jacqueline often claimed that she had been a victim of Sukesh in an effort to hide her true identity. But according to the chargesheet, "However, during investigation she has failed to provide any substantial material to establish the victimisation by Sukesh".
According to the agency, she deleted important evidence from her phone, and this amounted evidence tampering. According to the complaint, Chandrashekhar gave the actor presents totaling 7.12 crore rupees—1.26 crore to her sister in the US, 15 lakh to her brother in Australia, and gifts totaling 5.71 crore rupees.
Sukesh Chandrashekhar was detained by the Delhi Police on suspicion of extorting money from Aditi Singh and Shivender Singh. Both were former promoters of the huge pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy, totaling over 215 crore.
