NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved its or der on a petition filed by Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez, who has chal lenged the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) com plaint against her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The case stems from al legations that Fernandez received extravagant gifts from alleged conman Suke sh Chandrashekhar, who is at the center of a ₹200 crore money laundering scandal.
The matter was heard by Justice Anish Dayal, who reserved judgment after detailed arguments from both sides. Senior Advocate Sidharth Aggarwal, appearing for Fernandez, questioned the ED’s basis for implicating her.
Aggarwal contended that if financial transac tions with someone later found guilty of a crime are enough to trigger money laundering charges, then even grocery vendors or court officials could be treated as offenders. He stressed the dangers of in terpreting the law in a way that criminalizes everyday transactions.
Aggarwal also argued that Fernandez was un aware of Chandrashek har’s criminal background and had no reason to sus pect wrongdoing. “Busi nessmen often have mul tiple cases against them,” he said. “Today, I am pay ing the price of being a ce lebrity,” he added, quoting Fernandez’s position.Rep resenting the ED, Special Counsel Zoheb Hossain emphasized that money laundering cases under the PMLA are independent of investigations into predi cate (scheduled) offences. He asserted that someone can be prosecuted under the PMLA even if they are not an accused in the underlying criminal case. The ED has maintained that despite being aware of Chandrashekhar’s crimi nal record, Fernandez con tinued to accept expensive gifts, and therefore, cannot claim ignorance.
Earlier, the agency op posed Fernandez’s request for quashing the complaint, stating that her plea was a tactic to delay proceedings. Aggarwal clarified that Fernandez isn’t seeking to quash the entire complaint, but only the proceedings against her personally. “Sukesh is sitting in jail and carrying out extortion and fraud from there,” he said, adding that Fernandez’s cooperation with the police and her consistent statements demonstrate her lack of involvement.
Advocates Aggarwal and Prashant Patil argued that Fernandez has suffered reputational damage due to being publicly associated with money laundering. “Being labelled as a money launderer is problematic,” Aggarwal told the court.
Fernandez has request ed the court to quash the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) and the supplementary chargesheet filed by the ED. Her petition asserts that the material submitted by the agency clearly shows she is an innocent victim of a scheme orches trated by Chandrashekhar.
“There is no indication that she had any involve ment whatsoever in aiding him to launder his pur portedly ill-got wealth,” the plea states. Consequently, Fernandez argues, the charges under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA do not apply to her.
