Money laundering case: Delhi Court grants bail to Pinki Irani, who introduced conman Sukesh to Jacqueline

Jacqueline Fernandez and Sukesh Chandrasekhar

Patiala House Court of Delhi has granted bail to Pinky Irani, who is said to be an aide of multimillionaire conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar and had allegedly introduced him to Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez.

She had been arrested on December 9, 2021, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Rs 200 crore money laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Praveen Singh, in an order passed on February 15, said that the accused/applicant is a woman of advanced age, therefore, once the investigation has been completed and the evidence, which is mostly documentary in nature, has been collected, I do not find that there is any possibility of accused applicant tampering with the evidence.

"Considering the overall facts and circumstances, I find that no fruitful purpose will be served by keeping the accused in further custody. The accused/applicant is admitted to bail on her furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs 1 lakh with one surety of like amount," the court said.

Advocate RK Handoo appearing for Pinki Irani submitted that in the prosecution complaint, it is nowhere alleged that the applicant has helped/assisted Sukesh in the generation of proceeds of crime or as to how the applicant would have known that Sukesh was spending proceeds of crime and not the clean money. The allegations of impersonating, dealing in cash or transferring money to Dubai to her son are all allegations determinable during the trial.

The lawyer for Irani further submitted that the applicant has been interrogated at length on various occasions and recoveries have been made from her. It is further submitted that the rigours of section 45 Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) are not applicable in the case of the applicant as the applicant is covered by the first provision to Section 45.

"The whole case is based on statements which will be testified during the course of the trial," the lawyer said.

Last week, the Enforcement Directorate has filed a supplementary prosecution complaint (charge sheet) against Pinki Irani before the trial court and the court had also taken the cognizance on the same day.

Earlier, The Enforcement Directorate confronted Mumbai-based Pinki Irani with Sukesh Chandrasekar inside Tihar Jail.

According to the ED, Pinki Irani introduced Chandrasekhar to Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez. After taking requisite permission of the court, the ED carried out the joint questioning of the two. The two were asked the same set of questions. How the two knew each other and whether Pinki helped in illegal money laundering operations. Before her arrest, Pinki Irani was also confronted with Jacqueline Fernandez.

The ED has earlier questioned Fernandez in Rs 200 crore money laundering case linked to Chandrasekhar. Another actress Nora Fatehi was also questioned by the ED here in connection with the same case. ED is looking into various people who are directly or indirectly connected to this case. Reports suggest that the ED is looking into the possibility that money was invested abroad and it was led by Chandrasekhar, who is accused in 21 cases.

This ED case is based on an FIR filed by Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Sukesh Chandrasekhar who is accused of cheating and extorting Aditi Singh, wife of the former promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivinder Mohan Singh, who was arrested in October 2019 in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd.

Chandrasekhar and his associates reportedly took money from Aditi after posing as government officials and promising to get bail for her husband. Chandrasekhar reportedly persuaded Aditi to transfer money by impersonating a central government official over a spoof call while he was lodged in Rohini jail and promised to manage bail for her husband.

Both Chandrasekhar and his actor wife Leena Maria Paul were arrested by the Delhi Police in September for their alleged role in the duping case. The Delhi Police has so far arrested 13 people in connection with the case. The ED suspects that Chandrasekhar had extorted money from several people while he was in jail.

At the time of the incident, Chandrashekhar was lodged in Delhi's Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars. In September, the ED had arrested two aides of jailed conman against whom the Delhi Police recently invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Chandrasekhar was allegedly running the cheating and extortion racket in connivance with jail officials and some associates outside.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.