Bollywood actor Nora Fatehi was interrogated for about six-seven hours on Friday by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police in connection with a ₹200 crore extortion case linked to conman Sukesh Chandrashekar, officials said on Saturday.
Special Commissioner of Police (EOW and Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said that Ms. Fatehi cooperated during the interrogation. “We are left with few unanswered questions,” he said, adding that all angles, links and people involved in the main controversy will be probed.
Police said that the names of other Bollywood actors came up during the course of Ms. Fatehi’s interrogation, and that actor Jacqueline Fernandez would also be interrogated further.
According to an officer, Ms. Fatehi had answered around 50 questions during her interrogation, which was carried out to strengthen the case, as was being done with each person linked to the conman. Ms. Fatehi had said that she had not been aware of Chandrashekar’s criminal background. She also said that she had not been aware the event in Chennai to which she had been invited was linked to crime syndicates, a source said.
Mr. Yadav said the police were probing every person who had received expensive gifts and cars from Chandrashekar. In Ms. Fatehi’s case, they were looking into how the gifts had been used. “We will only reach a conclusion once the probe is over,” he added. He said that more rounds of interrogation could take place depending on probe.
Chandrashekar is currently lodged in jail. He is accused of cheating various people, including high profile individuals such as former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh's wife Aditi Singh.
Ms. Fatehi was earlier interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the case. On August 17, the ED filed a charge-sheet naming Ms. Fernandez as an accused in the ₹200 crore money laundering case.
A Delhi court on Wednesday took cognisance of a supplementary charge-sheet filed by the ED and asked Ms. Fernandez to appear before the court on September 26.
Ms. Fernandez, who has been summoned by the ED several times in connection with the investigation, was named as an accused for the first time in the supplementary charge-sheet. According to the ED, Ms. Fernandez and Ms. Fatehi had received luxury cars and other expensive gifts from Chandrashekar.
The Hindu had reported that Chandrashekar ran a cheating and extortion racket using a mobile phone from inside Delhi’s Rohini jail. He also allegedly used a caller ID to impersonate a senior government official to approach potential targets.
