High Court refuses to cancel Rs 215-crore ED case against Jacqueline Fernandez

The Delhi High Court has refused to cancel a Rs 215-crore money laundering case against actor Jacqueline Fernandez, saying the stage of the proceedings did not warrant such a move. The court emphasised that the trial process must unfold to determine whether the accused committed the offence.

The case dates back to August 17, 2022, when the ED filed a chargesheet naming Fernandez as an accused in the case linked to conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar.

The actor allegedly received jewellery worth over Rs 7 crore by Chandrashekhar. He had also allegedly gifted several high-end cars, expensive bags, clothes, shoes and costly watches to the actor and her family members.

In its order, the High Court reiterated that it was only through a full trial that the prosecution was required to prove that the accused had committed the alleged offence. "At the stage of framing of charges, probative value of the material cannot be gone into and the material brought by the prosecution has to be accepted," the court observed. It added that "Whether, in fact, the accused committed the offence, can only be decided in the trial."

Fernandez had sought to cancel the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) filed by the ED against her. However, the court deemed her plea premature, especially when arguments on charges were still pending before the trial court and charges were yet to be framed.

The court ruled her application to cancel the complaint, effectively asking the judiciary to conduct a "pre-trial" based solely on material on record, which it declined to do.

"The petitioner's case itself relies upon the statements of witnesses, and if these statements are complete, watertight, non-porous, not capable of eliciting further evidence, are clearly not conclusions that the court can reach in these proceedings," it said.

The High Court also noted that Fernandez's contentions - that she was conned, misled or hoodwinked - were subjective and remained unestablished. “All aspects pleaded by her are subjective issues which require to be established through trial," the court noted, adding that, "conclusivity can only precipitate during the trial which is the filtration mechanism offered by the criminal justice process."

While the court clarified that it was not passing any conclusive observations on the allegations, it stated that certain issues raised by the ED concerning Fernandez's conduct informed its decision not to cancel the case.

Among the points raised by the ED were:

• A 2020 news article, shared with Fernandez by her makeup artist Shaan Muttathil, concerning a Look-Out Notice against actor Leena Maria Paul, who was linked to impersonation and extortion in a bank fraud case. The ED argued that this should have alerted Fernandez to the criminal background of Chandrasekhar.
• The ED claimed Fernandez failed to verify claims made by Chandrasekhar while searching about him online.
• It also submitted that Fernandez admitted to deleting data from her mobile phone after learning of Chandrasekhar's arrest.
• The agency alleged that she initially concealed details of her financial transactions with Chandrasekhar and only disclosed them when confronted with evidence.

While the court made no determination on the truth of these allegations, it concluded that these circumstances do not justify the cancellation of the case at this stage.

The case will now proceed in the trial court where arguments on the framing of charges are ongoing.

- Ends