Plea ‘unwarranted': Delhi HC declines to quash money laundering case against actress Jacqueline Fernandez
Justice Anish Dayal said it effectively amounted to 'asking the court to reach a conclusion' that she is innocent.
Dismissing the plea, the judge said, 'It is only through trial that the prosecution is to prove that the accused has committed the offence. At the stage of framing of charge, probative value of the material cannot be gone into and the material brought by the prosecution has to be accepted…'
The plea filed by Fernandez sought to quash an Enforcement Case Information Report or ECIR (ED complaint) in which she has been accused of money laundering along with alleged conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar based on an earlier offence lodged by the Special Cell, New Delhi.
The Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had filed a charge sheet under various sections of the Indian Penal code (IPC) and sections 3 and 4 of Maharashtra Control Of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against Sukesh and various other associates for extortion amounting to nearly Rs 200 crore.
The money trail had led to Fernandez who had received gifts from Sukesh's alleged proceeds of crime.
Fernandez claimed before the court that she herself was a victim of the modus operandi used by Sukesh and that other similarly placed victims have not been proceeded against under PMLA, alleging that the ED was adopting a 'pick-and-choose' policy against her.
She also argued that she is not an accused in the predicate offence, but a witness.
The judge said, 'The Court is being asked, on the basis of material on record, to effectively conclude that petitioner was innocent, devoid of any knowledge of Sukesh's criminal antecedents and was conclusively and effectively duped and misled…'
'The apprehension of petitioner that any evidence would be self-incriminating cannot lead to quashing of the ECIR as statutory and constitutional protections are already provided and will have to be assessed in that rubric. This alone cannot assist the petitioner and release her from the yoke of prosecution under ECIR,' the court noted.
Concluding that 'all aspects pleaded in the case put by petitioner…are subjective issues which require to be established through trial…', the court dismissed the plea saying, 'Conclusivity can only precipitate during the trial which is the filtration mechanism offered by the criminal justice process. Accepting these interpretations in favour of the petitioner at this stage would upend the process completely.'
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