I'm victim of Sukesh’s crime, says Jacqueline Fernandez after getting interim bail in Rs 200 crore fraud case

Jacqueline was then granted bail by the Patiala House Court in Delhi on a bail bond of Rs 50,000, news agency ANI reported on Monday.

"Till then, her regular bail is pending before the court... On the request of Jacqueline's lawyer, the court granted interim bail to Jacqueline on a bail bond of Rs 50,000," the report said.

The next hearing has been fixed for October 22.

The ED had filed a chargesheet against Jacqueline earlier this month, naming her as an accused in a Rs 200 crore money laundering case. She was interrogated for around eight hours by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police last.

During her questioning last week, Jacqueline was confronted with the testimonies of Bollywood actor-dancer Nora Fatehi and an aide of Chandrashekhar, Pinky Irani, who were questioned by the Economic Offences Wing, as well.

According to the ED chargesheet, Jacqueline knew about Chandrashekhar’s involvement in criminal activities but she chose to overlook them and indulged in financial transactions with the conman.

The ED also said that Jacqueline had used proceeds of crime and bought valuable gifts for herself and her family members in India as well as abroad which amounts to an offence of money laundering under section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002.

'Conman' Sukesh Chandrashekhar is accused of cheating various people, including high-profile individuals such as former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh's wife Aditi Singh.

He allegedly extorted Rs 200 crore from Aditi Singh, the wife of jailed former Ranbaxy owner Shivinder Singh, while posing as an official from the union law ministry and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), on the pretext of getting her husband out on bail.

He currently faces over 10 criminal cases and is lodged in a Delhi jail.

Ravindra Yadav, Special CP, Crime/EoW, Delhi, said on Monday Sukesh Chandrashekhar was operating from inside the prison. "Sukesh Chandrashekhar is an expert in decoying people with the level of confidence he speaks with...(He) can even completely convince people who doubt him," the officer was quoted by ANI as saying.

Yadav said Sukesh conned the actresses on the behest of offering them roles. "Two more actresses came to us. They had also met him in prison... after coordinating with the jail authorities, we recreated the entire modus operandi. The actresses (Sophiya Singh and Nikki Tamboli) told us that they doubted him but he's a high-level conman," Yadav said.

According to PTI, investigation had revealed that Sukesh had offered a motorcycle to Fernandez's agent Prashant who had declined to take it. However, Sukesh allegedly left the two-wheeler and its keys at Prashant's place, police had said earlier. The vehicle was seized, they added.

An official was earlier quoted as saying: "It was found that some people worked around him (Sukesh Chandrashekhar) and he used to first contact actresses. When they were more friendly, he tried to entice them with expensive gifts. It seems some people realised but continued out of greed."