ED Grills Nora Fatehi In Extortion Case

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday questioned actor and dancer Nora Fatehi here in connection with Rs 200 crore money laundering case lodged against conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar.

Fatehi deposed before the investigators in response to the ED summons issued against her earlier asking her to join the probe on Thursday. It was the second time when the ED summoned Fatehi for questioning in connection with the case. The agency examined Fatehi last month too.

The actor reached the ED office at around 11.30 am and was quizzed for more than eight hours.

Agency sources say Fatehi has been called to ascertain connections to the accused.

The ED has also summoned Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez to appear before the investigators on Friday for questioning in the case.

The ED case is based on an FIR filed by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) against Sukesh Chandrasekhar, who is accused of cheating and extorting Aditi Singh, wife of the former promoter of Religare Enterprises Shivinder Mohan Singh, who was arrested in October 2019 in a case related to alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd.

Both Chandrasekhar and his actor wife Leena Maria Paul were arrested by the Delhi Police last month for their alleged role in the duping case. Delhi Police has so far arrested 13 people in connection with the case.

The ED suspects that Chandrasekhar had extorted money from several people while he was in jail.

The ED officials had recently conducted raids at Chandrashekhar’s sea-facing bungalow in Chennai and had found a fleet of 16 luxury cars worth crores of rupees.

At the time of the incident, Chandrashekhar, accused in 21 cases, was lodged in Delhi’s Rohini jail and was running an extortion racket from behind the bars.

A Delhi court on Tuesday extended the ED remand of Chandrasekhar for a further period of 11 days, and that of Leena Paul by 16 days. On October 9, both were sent to three-day ED remand.

Earlier this month, the ED had arrested two aides of jailed conman against whom the Delhi Police recently invoked stringent provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Chandrashekhar was allegedly running the cheating and extortion racket in connivance with jail officials and some associates outside. (ANI)