Bollywood actor Nora Fatehi on Monday sued actor Jacqueline Fernandez and 15 media houses for allegedly making defamatory remarks about her in a money laundering case related to conman Sukesh Chandrashekar, reported NDTV.

In a petition filed in a Delhi court, Fatehi has alleged that Fernandez and the media organisations were colluding to harm her career.

“The complainant has a pristine reputation apart from a rapidly progressing career which has quite obviously threatened her rivals who are unable to compete with her on fair footing,” the petition said, reported PTI.

In the money laundering case, Chandrashekhar is accused of extorting around Rs 215 crore from Shivinder Singh, a former promoter of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, and his wife Aditi Singh. Chandrashekhar had allegedly impersonated the Union home secretary, law secretary and an officer in the prime minister’s office while speaking to them.

On August 7, Chandrashekhar was arrested by the Delhi Police.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate is investigating the money trail on allegations that Chandrashekhar used the amount gained by cheating and extorting high-profile individuals to buy gifts for Fernandez. The central agency also named the actor in a supplementary chargesheet in the case.

The supplementary chargesheet had mentioned that Chandrashekhar had given gifts worth Rs 5.71 crore to Fernandez from the proceeds of crime generated by criminal activities, including extortion. The investigating agency also claimed that Fernandez was aware that the gifts given to her were the proceeds of a crime.

During questioning, Fernandez alleged that Fatehi had also received gifts from the conman.

But in her petition, Fatehi claimed that the only time she interacted with Chandrashekhar was when his wife, Leena Maria Paul, made her speak to him over phone during an event in Chennai.

“At the event, the complainant [Fatehi] was gifted an iPhone and a Gucci bag by Leena,” the petition read. “No gifts were ever received by the complainant from Chandrashekhar. Since the complainant had never even spoken to Chandrashekhar let alone having met him, hence the imputation made by Fernandez and the subsequent publishing of the same by the accused media houses are untrue.”

On November 15, a Delhi court had granted anticipatory bail to Fernandez.