Data from Leena Paul’s three mobile phones is to be retrieved, said the ED

New Delhi:

A Delhi court has extended the custodial interrogation of actor Leena Maria Paul till October 23 in a money laundering case related to extortion of Rs 200 crore from a businessman’s wife.

The Enforcement Directorate said that Leena Maria Paul was “not merely beneficiary of the proceeds of crime but apparently was playing an active role in movement of the proceeds of crime, its projection as untended money and was working in concert with main accused Sukesh Chandrashekar (her husband)”.

“The fact that money was moved at her instructions how and where this money has emerged but trail is still incomplete… in case further police custody of the accused is not granted, the trail which is to be established shall go cold,” the ED, which probes financial crimes, said.

During the actor’s custody and interrogation, care will be taken to ensure proper distancing in order to avoid accused catching any infection, said the probe agency.

The couple allegedly duped former Fortis Healthcare promoter Shivinder Mohan Singh’s wife Aditi Singh.

The case was filed on the basis of an FIR lodged by Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing on Aditi Singh’s complaint that a man posing as a senior official of the Law Ministry in June last year had offered to help secure bail for her husband, who was in jail at that time, in return for money.

Shivinder Singh was arrested in a money laundering case related to the alleged misappropriation of funds at Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) in 2019.

The agency said that Leena Maria Paul’s company Nail Artistry has done business to the tune of Rs.4.79 crore in Chennai, Rs.1.21 crore in Kochi and charged that the said sum of money is nothing but proceeds of crime which were laundered by her.

Data from her three mobile phones is also to be retrieved, said the ED.

Leena Maria Paul – who has acted in a couple of movies, including John Abraham-starrer Madras Cafe – is “deliberately withholding information regarding the utilization of proceeds of crime” and is making statements contrary to the evidence so far collected, said the agency.