The evidence filed by the ED would prove that the petitioner (Fernandez) is an innocent victim of Chandrasekhar’s maliciously targeted attack.”
“There is absolutely no indication that she had any involvement whatsoever in aiding him to launder his purportedly ill-gotten wealth. Hence, she cannot be prosecuted for the offences under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” it said.
It said the prosecution complaint filed against her confirmed that nowhere it has been alleged that she had knowledge about the nefarious activities of Chandrasekhar in extorting money from complainant Aditi Singh, PTI reported.
“The entire complaint is silent about even a remote allegation of knowledge as attributed to the petitioner. It is impossible to suggest that the petitioner knowingly engaged in any of the activities that is today punished by Section 3 of the PMLA,” the plea added.
The actor alleged that the ED acted in a partisan manner while arraigning her as an accused in the money laundering case.
“The ED has given a clean chit to Nora Fatehi (another Bollywood actor) despite it being an admitted fact on record that her family member received a BMW car from Sukesh Chandrasekhar on her instructions. It is of importance to note that the fact of Nora Fatehi receiving gifts from Sukesh Chandrasekhar has been presented to ED under the head ‘dissipation of proceeds of crime’,” her plea said.
Jacqueline Fernandez has appeared before the ED for questioning in the money laundering investigation against Sukesh Chandrasekhar and others.
An FIR was registered by the Delhi Police against Sukesh Chandrasekhar for allegedly duping the spouses of former promoters of Ranbaxy — Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh — of Rs 200 crore.
The conman and his wife were arrested by the Delhi Police, along with others, and the ED registered a money laundering case against them.
The Delhi Police had alleged that Sukesh Chandrasekhar and his wife used hawala routes and created shell companies to park the money earned as proceeds of crime. (PTI)