We has learnt that after seeking permission from the court, the ED officials took Pinky Irani to Tihar Jail where she is being confronted along with conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar in the extortion case.

Jacqueline Fernandez with conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar

Pinky Irani, the woman who was paid crores of rupees by conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar to facilitate ‘friendship’ with actor Jacqueline Fernandez, is being confronted along with him inside the Tihar Jail by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), sources have exclusively told India Today.

India Today has learnt that after seeking permission from the court, the ED officials took Pinky to Tihar Jail where she is being confronted along with Sukesh.

Pinky, who is in ED’s custody, was earlier confronted with Jacqueline, who is also under probe of the financial probe agency.

ED learnt about Pinky's role after it recorded a statement of Jacqueline's make-up artist, Shaan Muttathil. In his statement, Shan told officials that in January 2021, he was contacted by a lady named Angel who introduced him to Sukesh as Shekhar through video call wherein Shekhar requested him to introduce Jacqueline to him. However, Jacqueline was not interested in talking to an unknown person.

Later, the conman made a spoof call to Shan pretending to be working for Home Minister Amit Shah's office and asked him to get in touch with Sukesh as he was someone working with the government.

“The said call was made from the office of Home Minister Amit Shah which was a spoofed call as per investigation and made by the accused Sukesh,” the ED has said in the chargesheet.

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After the call, Shan shared Sukesh's mobile number with Jacqueline, after which they got in touch.

Thereafter, Sukesh called up Jacqueline from his mobile through WhatsApp and introduced himself as "Shekhar Ratna Vela" in the month of February, 2021.

Sukesh, according to the chargesheet, initially told the actor that he is from the political family of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha and the owner of Sun TV.

The ED has alleged that Sukesh was in regular contact with Jacqueline since February 2021 till he got arrested on August 7, 2021.

During this period, Sukesh provided various gifts to her and her family members, arranged charter flights for her to fly within India, her hotel stay and made payments in cash to a script writer on behalf of Jacqueline. All these expenses and payments were made by Sukesh out of the proceeds of crime acquired through criminal activities.

“It was also on the insistence of Angel that the conversations happened and various gifts were delivered by Angel, who has been identified as Pinky, a resident of Mumbai who was purchasing and delivering gifts on behalf of Sukesh to Jacqueline. Pinky in her statement stated that she introduced Shaan, Jacqueline's make-up artist, to Sukesh through video call and numbers were exchanged between Shaan and Sukesh and subsequently Jacqueline got in touch with Sukesh," read the ED document.

"She stated that as per the instructions of Sukesh, she used to visit showrooms of luxury bags, clothes, shoes and used to select the items through Sukesh, who used to settle bills and, after receipt of the payment confirmation from Sukesh Chandrasekhar, she used to pick up those items and deliver to Jacqueline either herself or through her manager Prakash,” it added.

Pinky also told officials that Sukesh had given expensive gifts, which included two Gucci shoes, one LV bag and one LV sling bag to Shaan Muttathil.