New Delhi: Supreme Court judge Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra Thursday recused himself from hearing a plea of Hindi film actor Jacqueline Fernandez against a Delhi court order framing of charges against her in a Rs 200-crore money laundering case.
At the outset, a partial working day (PWD) bench, comprising justices Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar, apprised the actor’s counsel and the Enforcement Directorate that the matter would be referred to some other bench.
“There is some difficulty. In one of the connected matters, my son had appeared on the government side. Post (this matter) June 25 before a bench in which one of us is not a member,” Justice Mishra said.
A Delhi court, May 30, ordered framing of charges against the actor, alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and 15 others in a Rs 200-crore money laundering case.
The trial court had also directed that the charges be framed against Chandrashekar and 20 others for various offences, including under the stringent MCOCA provisions, in another case registered by the city police’s special cell.
The actor moved the top court against the order. Jacqueline, whom the ED summoned several times in connection with the probe, was named as an accused for the first time in a supplementary chargesheet filed by agency.
The ED alleged in its second supplementary complaint against Jacqueline that she was in constant touch with Chandrashekhar and had received valuable gifts from him through his associate, Pinky Irani.
According to the prosecution, Chandrashekhar was running an organised criminal network from inside jail and was impersonating senior government officials, including those from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Law and Justice.
It claimed that by using spoofed calls, encrypted applications and fabricated identities, the accused induced complainant Aditi Singh and her family members to part with huge sums of money.
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