The Economics Offences Wing (EOW) summoned Jacqueline Fernandez and questioned her for eight hours in relation to the Sukesh Chandrashekhar case.
The actress was earlier named as an accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a chargesheet filed by them. However, Jacqueline, who appeared before special NIA Judge Shailendra Malick earlier today, was granted interim bail in the case. When the actress interacted with the media and when she was questioned regarding her involvement in the extortion case, the actress insisted that she was a victim of Sukesh Chandrashekhar and not the accomplice.
For the uninitiated, in a chargesheet filed by ED, they had alleged that Jacqueline Fernandez was aware of the criminal activities that Sukesh Chandrashekhar was involved in and despite that, she continued to deal in financial transactions with the conman. In the court proceedings that were held today, it was revealed that the actress’ legal team had sought a pre-arrest bail in the case. Additional Sessions Judge Shailendra Malick has also sought a response from the ED regarding this as well as another response about the actress opposing the summons by the agency. As of today, Jacqueline was granted an interim bail on a bail bond of Rs. 50,000.
Sukesh Chandrashekhar was arrested a few years ago in a money laundering case related to the 2017 Election Commision bribery case. And yet again, earlier this year, he was arrested in a case of conning some high-profile businessmen. Whereas Jacqueline Fernandez was accused of receiving financial gains worth Rs. 7 crores from Sukesh in the form of gifts. Reports also claimed that the conman had spent massive lump sums on the actress’ family. However, the actress has asserted more than once that she was unaware of his involvement in criminal activities and has also alleged that she knew him through her friend Pinky Irani, who is named as an accomplice in the case.
Besides Jacqueline, actress-reality show judge Nora Fatehi too was questioned by the EOW in relation to the case.