The Mumbai Police on Wednesday filed an FIR against Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband Raj Kundra in connection with Rs 60-crore fraud case, reports NDTV.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police have invoked a case under Section 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code in an FIR at the instance of Deepak Kothari against actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra and her husband, businessman Raj Kundra.
Last month, Shetty and Kundra have moved the Bombay High Court, seeking to quash the Rs 60-crore cheating case lodged against them by the Mumbai police's economic offences wing. Apart from seeking to quash the FIR, the couple had also urged the court to direct the police not to file a chargesheet in the case and not to take any coercive action against them pending the hearing of their pleas.
Deepak Kothari had lodged the complaint against the couple, alleging that from 2015 to 2023, they induced him to invest Rs 60 crore in their company, Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd, but the amount was used for their own personal benefits. The couple in their pleas claimed the FIR was lodged based on a false and distorted set of facts, and it has been 'maliciously filed with an ulterior and malafide motive to extort money'.
Shetty, in her plea, said she was not involved in the day-to-day activities of the company and was associated with it for a very limited time. The couple said the entire dispute was of a civil and contractual nature arising from a failed business venture and investment loss. "The collapse of the company was due to unforeseen economic circumstances, particularly demonetisation in November 2016, which severely impacted cash-based business," the pleas said. The losses suffered were merely business losses and not due to any fraudulent design or criminal conspiracy, it added.