A Delhi court on Friday issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a plea filed by Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez seeking permission to turn approver in the alleged ₹200 crore money laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Prashant Sharma of the Patiala House Court passed the order and listed the matter for further proceedings on April 20.

Fernandez was named in the case on allegations that she received expensive gifts from alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar.

Chandrashekhar is accused of having posed as a high-level government official acting on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Home Minister to dupe business entrepreneur Aditi Singh of nearly ₹200 crores over a span of seven to eight months.

Initially, the prosecution complaint was filed against eight accused in December 2021 and Fernandez was not named in the complaint.

Fernandez said that she appeared before the ED five times and recorded her statement under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

On August 17, 2022, the ED filed a second supplementary prosecution complaint in the matter and arraigned Fernandez as an accused.

The High Court had in July last year rejected Fernadez's plea to quash the case against her.

Fernandez argued that she did not knowingly receive any gifts and that she is a witness in the predicate offence (Delhi Police case).

Fernandez also argued that like Singh, Chandrashekhar adopted the same deceptive tactic of making a spoof phone call posing as a high-ranking government official to get in touch with her makeup artist Shaan.

She claimed that she was also a victim of Chandrashekhar’s scheme and was unaware of any illegal activity by him and his associates.