Rs 200 cr PMLA case: Delhi HC grants bail to Pooja Singh, close aide of Leena Maria Paul

New Delhi [India]: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to Pooja Singh, said to be a close aide of jailed Leena Maria Paul, wife of conman Sukesh Chandrashekar, in the Rs 200 crore money laundering case.

The Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma allowed her bail plea on a personal bail bond of Rs 50,000 and a like amount surety. Earlier her bail plea was dismissed by the trial Court.

Advocate Satish Pandey appeared for Pooja Singh earlier submitted that Trial Court while rejecting the bail plea had failed to consider that petitioner is one of the employee of said ‘Nail Artistry’ run by the accused Leena Maria Palouse & she was bound to follow the instructions of her boss .

Petitioner Pooja Singh claime she was doing the alleged acts on instructions of her boss understanding the same as a part of her service without knowing about the crime-racket of the alleged main accused.

However the truth was that she never supplied the alleged articles to the accused in Jail and the investigating Agency have not found any incriminating evidence to the effect of supply the said alleged articles in the jail by the petitioner to the main accused.

Advocate Satish Pandey further argued that petitioner is a 26-year young unmarried girl & joined the job for livelihood, in the ‘Nail Artistry’ beauty-saloon run by the Leena Maria Palouse in the city of Chennai.

When her employer Leena was arrested by the ED and sent to a Delhi jail, she was bound to follow the instruction & advice of her boss who is the inmate of the jail.

Petitioner was totally unaware about this high profile crime syndicate as allegedly run by the main accused. She has nothing to do with the said alleged money laundering of Rs. 200 crore as alleged by the ED against main accused said the lawyer.

While arresting Pooja Singh in July 2022, the ED claimed that she was non cooperative and evasive in her statement. ED also claimed that she had deleted the data of her phones at the instructions of Sukesh.

It was further submitted that Pooja Singh is in possession of material evidence and information related to the offence of money laundering and is deliberately withholding/not divulging the same.

It was further submitted that custodial interrogation of accused is essential for identification of the persons involved in the offence and to ascertain end use of proceeds of crime, their beneficial owners, related activities/financial transaction, layering and to unearth the deep routed conspiracy hatched by her with co-accused for furtherance of investigation.

It was also alleged that Pooja Singh was assisting Sukesh Chandrashekar to pass information to transfer funds kept with his associates.

It was also alleged that Pooja Singh was in the knowledge of the fact that sales in ‘Nail Artistry’, owned by Sukesh and his wife, were from the amalgamation of proceeds of crime.

ED also alleged that Pooja Singh assisted Sukesh Chandrashekar in laundering the proceeds of crime by allowing him to exchange messages through her for which she was paid a handsome amount. Therefore, there are reasons to believe that the accused is guilty of offence of money laundering under PMLA.

The Rs 200 crore extortion and Money Laundering case is presently being probed by the Enforcement Directorate and Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police.

The ED in its supplementary chargesheet has made Bollywood Actor Jacqueline Fernandez an accused in the case. The Trial Court in November 2022 had granted regular bail to Jacqueline in the case.

Sukesh Chandrashekhar, the prime accused in a Rs 200-crore money laundering case, has been charged with duping the wife of former Ranbaxy owner Shivinder Singh, Aditi Singh, while he was lodged in a Delhi jail. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing the money trail of the proceeds in the case.