SC allows Jacqueline Fernandez to withdraw plea in money laundering case

The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted actor Jacqueline Fernandez to withdraw her plea challenging a Delhi court order to frame charges against her in the Rs 200 crore money laundering case linked to alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar. The court granted her liberty to pursue appropriate legal remedies as per law

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez to withdraw her plea challenging a Delhi court order to frame charges against her in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case.

“Counsel for the petitioner (Fernandez) has sought permission to withdraw this special leave petition with liberty to avail appropriate remedy in accordance with law,” a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Joymalya Bagchi said.

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The top court permitted the withdrawal of petition with the liberty as sought by the petitioner. A Delhi court on May 30 ordered framing of charges against the actor, alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar and 15 others in the case. The actor had moved the top court against the order.

The trial court also directed that charges be framed against Chandrashekar and 20 others for various offences, including under the stringent MCOCA provisions, in another case registered by the city police’s special cell.

On June 3, setting the stage for trial, a Delhi court formally framed charges in the money laundering case. On June 11, apex court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra recused himself from hearing the actor’s plea. Fernandez, who was was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) several times in connection with the probe, was named an accused for the first time in a supplementary charge sheet filed by the agency.

The ED alleged in a second supplementary complaint that Fernandez was in constant touch with Chandrashekar and received valuable gifts from him through his associate Pinky Irani. According to the prosecution, Chandrashekar was running an organised criminal network from inside jail and impersonating senior government officials, including those from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Law and Justice.

It claimed that the accused induced complainant Aditi Singh and her family members to part with huge sums of money by using spoofed calls, encrypted applications and fabricated identities.

The ED alleged that Chandrashekar generated proceeds of crime amounting to more than Rs 200 crore through extortion, cheating, impersonation and criminal intimidation, and thereafter concealed, possessed, transferred, layered and projected the same as untainted property with the help of his associates.