Horse, yes! Romance? Neigh!

Few months ago, Jacqueline had posted a picture of a horse that she rode post her shoot. She captioned it, “Welcome Home Espuela”. From the looks of it, now the horse seems to have become the actress’ nightmare because in a chargesheet filed by the ED, Sukesh has claimed he gifted to Jacqueline a horse worth `52 lakh and a Persian cat worth Rs 9 lakh.

Kiss and tell

Earlier, two photographs of Sukesh and Jacqueline kissing each other made the rounds on social media. As the pictures were taken by Sukesh using his cell phone, it’s obvious that the pictures were leaked. Sukesh, who is currently in Tihar Jail and was still using his phone with the connivance of some jail officials, had informed that he’d gifted various things to Jacqueline and to actress and dancer Nora Fatehi.

Interestingly, Sukesh is married to actress Leena Maria Paul, who was seen two films — the 2013-film Madras Café with John Abraham, in which she played the role of a Tamil rebel and in a 2013-Tamil film Biriyani, in which she had a small role. Leena apparently functions like Sukesh’s secretary sometimes, having even fixed up for Jacqueline to visit him in Chennai and Hyderabad, among other places.

‘Slanderous’, scream the spokespersons

While Jacqueline’s spokespersons had earlier, in no less terms, claimed the story of a romantic liaison as wrong and the entire episode to be slander, Nora’s spokesperson also circulated a statement to the media, requesting them not to indulge in slander.

Interestingly, Sukesh’s lawyer Anant Malik has claimed that his client and Jacqueline were in a romantic relationship and that even Nora Fatehi was gifted a BMW car by Sukesh. Nora is, however, claiming to be a victim.

“On behalf of Nora Fatehi, we would like to clarify the various conjectures floating around amongst the media. Nora Fatehi has been the victim around the case and being a witness, she is co-operating and helping the officers in the investigation.

We would like to make it very clear that she has not been a part of any money laundering activity, she does not know or have any personal connection with the accused and has been called by ED to strictly help with the investigation. We would request the media to refrain from slandering her name and making any statements before any official information is released [sic],” read the statement.
Jacqueline’s tours in jeopardy

Given her situation, the actress who was slated to travel to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia as part of the Dabangg tour later this month may not be able to do so. She won’t be able to leave the country for the tour and may have to be replaced as the Look Out Circular (LOC) doesn’t permit her until she’s through with all her responses to claims made by Sukesh and as presented in ED’s charge sheet.
Jacqueline was first stopped from flying out of India on the weekend. She’s been further asked to come to New Delhi to depose before the ED.

Using star power

Sources in the ED say that it’s now increasingly becoming a lot more evident that Sukesh was using his proximity to these actresses to get many more deals done.

“Sukesh flaunted these pictures with Jacqueline and photographs with other Bollywood stars to tell people what an influential person he was and what he could do for them. These pictures of Jacqueline are not random selfies that anyone can get when they stand next to a star. That is one reason Sukesh was quite successful in conning people and later extorting money out of them,” say sources.

Next in line

The name of another very big star from Bollywood is being mentioned in connection with the case, but the ED officials don’t want to jump the gun by announcing the name now as they’re still flushing out more details.

Salman Khan to her rescue?

Rumour is bhai may play Knight in Shining Armour to the damsel in distress Jacqueline Fernandes

If reports are to be believed, Jacky’s mentor Salman Khan may step in if things get worse for her. The Dabangg star has helped many people in the Bollywood industry get out of jams, and his intervention on Jacqueline’s behalf seems likely. Salman is believed to be very influential.

A timeline on Sukesh Chandrasekhar

Sukesh began conning people at the age of 17. After starting forgery from Bengaluru, he moved to Chennai and soon duped people in other metros of the country.

Sukesh Chandrasekhar and his then-reported girlfriend Leena Maria Paul were arrested by police in 2011 for cheating Chennai-based Canara Bank.

According to a various reports, Kochi-based Emmanuel Silks MD T.O. Baiju had alleged that Sukesh promised him to bring Katrina Kaif for a promotional event and even took `20 lakh from them. However, he brought a Tollywood leading actor for the event in Kottayam District in Kerala.

Sukesh was lodged in Tihar jail after getting arrested in April 2017 from a hotel in the infamous Election Commission (EC) bribery case. Sukesh had allegedly struck a deal for `50 crore to help the AIADMK (Amma) faction keep the “two leaves” symbol.

Sukesh dropped names to get his way. He’d pose as grandson of M Karunanidhi, son-in-law of MK Alagiri and son of TR Baalu, K Anbazhagan, Karunakar Reddy and Sudhkar Rao, former Karnataka Chief Secretary. Moreover, he duped many people posing as nephew of YSR Reddy and secretary of BS Yeddyurappa. There are reports that he’d presented a friend as Kumaraswamy’s son.

In 2020, based on the complaint of Aditi S Singh, the wife of former Fortis promoter Shivinder Singh, Sukesh cheated Aditi to the tune of `200 crore. He posed as an official of the Ministry of Law for securing bail for her husband.