Delhi High Court dismisses plea by Jacqueline Fernandez to quash money laundering case

The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the plea by actress Jacqueline Fernandez seeking quashing of a money laundering case against her..The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had booked Fernandez in relation to an alleged ₹200 crore money laundering scam perpetrated by alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar. The Bollywood actress sought the quashing of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and ED’s prosecution complaint (equivalent to a chargesheet) naming her as an accused in the case.Justice Anish Dayal observed that Fernandes’s contentions will be proved at the stage of trial and cannot be considered in this matter. “Conclusivity can only precipitate during the trial which is the filtration mechanism offered by the criminal justice process. Accepting these interpretations in favour of the petitioner at this stage would upend the process completely,” the Court observed. Accordingly, the Court dismissed the petition.“The Court is of the opinion that the petition and plea of petitioner cannot be entertained for quashing of the ECIR/DLZO-II/54/2021 dated 8th August 2021 and 2nd supplementary complaint dated 17th August 2022. The petition is, therefore, dismissed,” the Court stated. .Fernandez was booked in the case on allegations that she received expensive gifts from Chandrashekhar.Chandrashekhar is accused of having deceitfully posed as a high-level government official acting on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Home Minister to dupe business entrepreneur Aditi Singh of nearly ₹200 crores over a span of seven to eight months.Initially, the prosecution complaint was filed against eight accused in December 2021 and Fernandez was not named in the complaint.Fernandez said that she appeared before the ED five times and recorded her statement under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).On August 17, 2022, the ED filed a second supplementary prosecution complaint in the matter and arraigned Fernandez as an accused..This was challenged by the actress before the Court. Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal appeared for Fernandez and argued that she has not sought quashing of the prosecution complaint in its entirety but only so far as it relates to Fernandez.He further contended that Fernandez did not receive any gifts knowingly and that she is a witness in the predicate offence (Delhi Police case).Fernandez also argued that like Singh, Chandrashekhar adopted the same deceptive tactic of making a spoof phone call posing as a high-ranking government official to get in touch with her makeup artist, Shaan.She claimed that she was also a victim of Chandrashekhar’s scheme and was unaware of any illegal activity by him and his associates..The ED, represented by Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, questioned the maintainability of the plea. Hossain pointed out that a trial court had already taken cognisance (judicial notice) of the matter since there was a prima facie case. "The order of cognisance is a valid order... Without a challenge to the cognisance order, where such a view is in existence, the challenge to the prosecution complaint may not be available," he said. Hossain further stated that even after Fernandez got to know about Chandrashekhar being involved in criminal activities, she continued to receive gifts from him. The petition to quash the case is an attempt to stall the proceedings, the ED counsel argued. .Senior Advocate Siddharth Aggarwal along with advocates Aman Nandrajog, Prashant Patil, Gaurav Arora and Arshiya Ghosh appeared for Fernandes.Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain, Panel Counsel Vivek Gurnani along with advocates Kartik Sabharwal, Pranjal Tripathi, Kanishk Maurya, Sai M Sud and S Vats appeared for ED.[Read judgement]