New Delhi: A supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate against jailed ‘conman’ Sukesh Chandrasekhar in a money laundering case detailed how his “associate” helped him contact actors like Sara Ali Khan, Jahnvi Kapoor, Bhumi Pednekar and other models.
The 53-year-old “associate”, Pinky Irani alias Angel, was arrested by the agency in December last year.
“Pinky Irani was a close confidant and advisor of Chandrasekhar. Not only did she create a facade of being a businessman for Chandrasekhar, she also allowed him to project himself as a man of means and a free man by ensuring that he could deliver what he wanted,” the ED said in the chargesheet, reports news agency PTI.
Irani has been accused by the ED of indulging in money laundering and allegedly helping Chandrasekhar in getting in touch with actor Jacqueline Fernandez and sending her expensive gifts on his behalf.
Fernandez has been questioned multiple times in this case. Dancer-actor Nora Fatehi has also recorded her statement with the ED.
Sukesh Chandrashekhar, 32, is lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail for allegedly extorting Rs 215 crore from Aditi Singh, the wife of the owner of Ranbaxy.
As per the chargesheet, Sara Ali Khan told ED that she did not know anyone by the name of Sukesh Chandrasekhar or Shekhar but someone in the name of “Mr. Suraj Reddy did WhatsApp her on 21.05.2021 saying he would like to gift her a car as a family gesture and mentioned that his CEO Mrs Irani had tried to contact her”.
Sara Ali Khan further said that Reddy insisted on giving her gifts that she continued to refuse. “However, after several attempts of refusing him, she did agree on receiving a box of chocolates from him and thereafter he sent a Franck Muller watch along with the chocolates,” the ED chargesheet said.
Actor Jahnvi Kapoor, in her statement to the ED, said that she was neither approached by Chandrasekhar nor Irani, but a lady who identified herself as Leena from a company called “Nail Artistry” had contacted her and asked to be a celebrity guest at the launch of a salon in Bengaluru.
Nail Artistry is stated to be the business enterprise of Leena Maria Paul, who is Chandrasekhar’s wife.
In her statement, Jahnvi said she inaugurated the salon in July last year and received a branded luxury bag and a professional fee of Rs 18.94 lakh. She sent a statement of the transaction to the ED.
The chargesheet further stated that Bhumi Pednekar was approached by Irani, saying that she was the “vice president (of) HR News Express Post”. “Irani informed Pednekar that their group chairman (Chandrasekhar) is a fan of hers and wanted to speak with her about a huge project and also wanted to gift her a car,” the chargesheet said.
The ED also said in its chargesheet that Irani would impersonate herself as CEO or CFO of a media company and take models to Tihar jail for Chandrashekar to meet them.
“She took some of them to Tihar Jail to meet Sukesh Chandrasekhar and she impersonated as Alka Kumar, P Kumar, Angel K, CFO of Jaya TV/Sun TV and CFO of News Express Post for contacting these models/actresses,” the ED stated .
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