The Patiala House Court in Delhi on Wednesday granted bail to Pinki Irani, an alleged aide of conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar and had allegedly introduced him to Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez, news agency ANI reported.
Irani, who was arrested on December 9 last year by the Enforcement Directorate in the ₹200 crore money laundering case, was granted bail on furnishing ₹1 lakh as surety.
Additional Sessions judge Praveen Singh said that the accused is a woman of advanced age and once the investigation is completed and evidence collected, there is no possibility of her tampering with evidence.
"Considering the overall facts and circumstances, I find that no fruitful purpose will be served by keeping the accused in further custody. The accused/applicant is admitted to bail on her furnishing personal bond in the sum of ₹1 lakh with one surety of like amount," ANI quoted the judge as saying.
While appearing for Irani, her lawyer RK Handoo argued that it was nowhere alleged that she had helped Sukesh in generating proceeds of crime or how she knew that the conman was spending proceeds of crime and not legal money.
"The whole case is based on statements which will be testified during the course of the trial," the lawyer said.
Last week, the Enforcement Directorate had filed a supplementary prosecution charge sheet against Pinki Irani before the trial court. The court had taken cognisance on the same day.
The probe agency had also confronted Irani with Sukesh Chandrasekhar inside Tihar Jail in Delhi. The ED alleges that it was Pinky Irani who had introduced Sukesh to the Bollywood actor.
The ED has earlier questioned Fernandez in ₹200 crore money laundering case linked to Chandrasekhar. Another actress Nora Fatehi was also questioned by the ED here in connection with the same case.
The ED in its chargesheet had claimed that Jacqueline received several expensive gifts from the conman, allegedly funded by the extortion amount. According to reports, the actor had claimed that she was conned by Sukesh Chandrasekhar who posed as a representative from the Sun TV with a film offer.
However, controversy erupted after photos of Jacqueline with Sukesh went viral on internet. Chandrasekhar on December 31 had released a statement claiming he was not a conman and was in fact was in a relationship with Jacqueline Fernandez.
However, Jacqueline released a statement requesting her privacy to be respected.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar is accused of cheating and extorting ₹200 crore rupees from Aditi Singh, the wife of former Religare Enterprises promoter Shivinder Singh, who was arrested in October 2019 over charges of misappropriation of funds at his company.
Chandrasekhar and his associates reportedly took money from Aditi after posing as government officials and promising to get bail for her husband. Chandrasekhar reportedly persuaded Aditi to transfer money by impersonating a central government official over a spoof call while he was lodged in Rohini jail and promised to manage bail for her husband.