The Patiala House court in Delhi granted bail to Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez on Tuesday in connection with the Rs 200 crore extortion case involving multi-millionaire conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. The actress has been granted bail on a Rs 2 lakh bond and is not permitted to leave the country without the permission of the court. The actress was seen walking into the courtroom for the hearing.
Earlier, while hearing arguments from Fernandez’s and the ED’s lawyers, the court chastised the Enforcement Directorate for adopting a pick-and-choose policy, and questioned why the agency had not arrested actor Jacqueline Fernandez despite issuing a lookout circular against her.
The court questioned why Fernandez had not been arrested so far, despite the ED’s claim that she can easily flee the country because she has plenty of money.
According to the agency, it has issued a Lookout Circular (LOC) on airports to prevent the actor from leaving the country.
“Why haven’t you (ED) arrested Jacqueline yet during the investigation despite issuing an LOC? Other accused are in jail. Why adopt a pick-and-choose policy,” according to the report, the court asked the investigation agency,
The accused has requested bail, claiming that she does not need to be detained because the investigation is complete and the charge sheet has been filed.
The actress was granted interim bail on September 26 on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 by the court.
On August 17, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed its second supplementary charge sheet in the case, naming her as an accused. The ED’s earlier charge sheet did not name her as an accused. The documents, however, mentioned the specifics of the statements recorded by Fernandez and fellow actor Nora Fatehi.
According to reports, Sukesh Chandrasekhar wrote a letter to his lawyer claiming that Jacqueline Fernandez had no involvement in the scam.
Sukesh wrote in the letter, “It’s very, very unfortunate that Jacqueline has been made an accused in the PMLA (money laundering) case… We were in a relationship and if I have given her and her family gifts, what is their fault… She never asked me for anything except loving her and standing by her…”
Sukesh Chandrasekhar, meanwhile, has written a series of letters to Delhi LG VK Saxena in which he has levelled various allegations against AAP leaders.
