Delhi Police postpone questioning of Jacqueline Fernandez in extortion case as she cites 'prior commitments'

A senior police officer has confirmed to ANI that Jacqueline has communicated to Delhi police via email that due to prior commitments, she won't be able to join the investigation on September 12. The officer added that Jacqueline was summoned to join the investigation on September 12 at the EOW office at Mandir Marg around 11 am.

"Now, we will issue a fresh summon to Jacqueline to join the investigation in the case. The dates of fresh summon will be decided soon," the officer added.

The actor had been summoned in connection with the Rs 200 crore extortion case filed against alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and this is the second time that Jacqueline has requested the investigation team to postpone it citing prior commitments, officers said. Sukesh had allegedly extorted Rs 200 crore from the wife of former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Singh.

Special CP (Crime and EOW) Ravindra Singh Yadav said they summoned four to five people, including actors Jacqueline Fernandez and Nora Fatehi in connection with the probe. "Investigation is going on to ascertain all the links, (and whether) people involved in the main conspiracy and people who accepted gifts were aware of his background or not," he said.

Last year, the Delhi Police filed a charge sheet against Sukesh, his wife Leena Maria Paul, and 12 others, alleging that he was lodged at Rohini jail as an undertrial and allegedly extorted Rs 200 crore from Shivinder Singh's wife over a period of one year. The police had also invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against him. "The investigation officer has started preparing a supplementary charge sheet and recording statements of all the persons involved with Sukesh," a senior police officer said.

On August 17, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a supplementary charge sheet and mentioned that Jacqueline Fernandez had received gifts worth Rs 5.71 crore from Sukesh, but is "trying to justify herself that she was in fact the victim of manipulative actions by Sukesh against her". The supplementary charge sheet, filed at Patiala House Court, has Fernandez as an accused. Later, the court took cognizance of the charge sheet and issued a summons to her to appear before it on September 26 in the multi-crore money laundering case linked to Sukesh.

The ED, in its supplementary charge sheet, claimed Jacqueline admitted that Sukesh gave Rs 15 lakh in cash to writer Advaita Kala for a script she had written for the actor. This contradicts Jacqueline's earlier statement to the investigating agency that she gave only chocolates and flowers to Kala. According to the charge sheet, Kala, an award-winning screenwriter, and novelist, told the ED that she was approached by Jacqueline in 2021 to write a script for a web series being produced by her.