Police Demand Popular Actress’ Arrest

Authorities have demanded the arrest of Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez. Fernandez, a Sri Lankan beauty pageant winner and model who made her Bollywood debut in 2009, is currently being investigated for a financial misdemeanor for a case involving an alleged conman and accusations of money laundering. However, despite her alleged involvement in the case, a court in India recently granted her bail, prompting the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Indian government agency that investigates financial crimes, to state their desire to place Fernandez in custody.

The case surrounding Fernandez centers around her relationship with Sukesh Chandrasekhar, whom she first met in December 2020 through a woman named Pinky Irani, who was arrested in 2021 for her connections with Chandrasekhar, according to court documents, per the BBC. A month later, Fernandez and Chandrasekhar first spoke when her staff received a call from what they believed was the Indian home ministry claiming the actress should speak to the conman as he was an important official. Investigators later dubbed this a “spoof call.” During their early discussions, Fernandez said Chandrasekhar told her he was the scion of a top political family from the southern state of Tamil Nadu and that he owned a well-known news TV channel and a big jewelry firm and that he was interested in producing a project for a streaming service with her as the lead. They went on to meet twice in the southern city of Chennai. At the time, Chandrasekhar was out on parole to attend his uncle’s funeral, though Fernandez’s lawyer claimed she did not know he was in jail.

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Chandrasekhar, 32, is accused of extortion by several people and has been in prison since 2018 in connection with other cases. In August 2021, he was named in a fresh complaint accusing him of extorting a business family of 2bn rupees ($24.6 million) in 2020, charges his lawyer has denied. As authorities investigated the accusations, they discovered that between February and August 2021, Chandrasekhar lavished Fernandez with gifts including designer handbags, clothes, jewelry, a horse, cars for her siblings and parents, properties and cash payments worth 71.2m rupees. While Fernandez has not denied receiving the gifts, her lawyer said she is the victim of an elaborate crime and insisted that she was not involved in a romantic relationship with Chandrasekhar, who, per Fernandez’s lawyer, “was chasing her and was calling her parents and siblings and buying them expensive presents in a bid to impress them. She was considering him.” However, investigators claim Fernandez was aware of Chandrasekhar’s crimes and “conveniently overlooked his alleged criminal past and continued to accept presents from him which means that she was receiving proceeds of crime.”

Investigators have accused Fernandez of withholding information, misleading them, and deleting messages from her phone that could have been used as evidence in the case. Officials investigating the case on multiple occasions have called her for questioning and filed charges against her in court. They have also petitioned to have her arrested. However, on Tuesday, a Delhi court ruled in Fernandez’s favor and granted her bail. No further information has been released at this time.