CHENNAI: Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez finds herself in a spot.
The conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar for whom she fell after he promised her more offers in the South and bequeathed her with costly gifts is the cause of her present predicament. Her name is now linked to a money laundering case involving Sukesh.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar, who also has several aliases and prefers a lavish life, targets the super-rich, impersonates high-ranking officials or kin of top politicians, and dupes them. He wooed Bollywood actresses. He has several cases against him.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar and his live-in partner Leena Maria Paul, who acted in Madras Cafe, are already in prison after being arrested in connection with an extortion case running to the tune of Rs 200 crores.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday attached assets worth Rs 7.27 crore belonging to the Jacqueline in the case involving the conman.
In the wake of the attachment of assets belonging to Jacqueline, it has come to light that Sukesh has bequeathed Jacqueline with a slew of expensive gifts ranging from an Arabian horse worth Rs 52 lakh to designer bags from Gucci, Persian cats, and a Mini Cooper, which she claims, she gave it back to him, according to reports.
The conman also gifted her a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes, two pairs of diamond earrings, a bracelet of multi-colored stones, two Hermes bracelets, etc, reports say.
Sukesh during interrogation by the ED had reportedly informed that he gave expensive gifts to the actor. He had also claimed to have been in a relationship with the actor.
Jacqueline told ED officials she had returned back the Mini Cooper that he had gifted to her.
Last year when photographs of her and Sukesh Chandrasekhar went viral on social media, she took to her Instagram handle appealing not to circulate her images and invade her privacy at a difficult time, which she described as "a rough patch." She also spoke about having sought professional help to deal with all the trauma the media glare and trolling can cause.
The photos were reportedly taken in during the middle of 2021 when the conman was out on interim bail.
Sukesh got in touch with the actor's makeup artist in his bid to befriend Jacqueline. He introduced himself as an official from the Home Minister's office. When she finally reached him in February 2021, he told her that he is the owner of Sun TV. Further, he told her he is Sukesh Ratna Vela calling from Jayalalithaa's office. He assured her that he would help her do more films in the south.
Sukesh is presently lodged in Tihar jail after being arrested for allegedly extorting Rs 200 crores from the wife of a millionaire who was trying to bail out her husband.
It was in August last year, that the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing registered an FIR against Chandrashekhar for allegedly duping high-profile people including the wives of former Ranbaxy promoters Shivinder Singh and Malvinder Singh. He reportedly posed as a home ministry official and promised to help them with the case of the husbands who were arrested in 2019 for allegedly causing losses of ₹2,000 crores to Religare Finvest Ltd. According to a report, it later came to light that Sukesh Chandrashekhar had planned and executed the entire con job with the help of jail officials.