- Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra have been charged with defrauding a businessman of over ₹60 crore.
- The case involves a loan and investment for the couple’s former company, Best Deal TV.
- The complainant, Deepak Kothari, claims the money was used for personal expenses instead of business.
GG News Bureau
Mumbai, 14th Aug: Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty and her husband, businessman Raj Kundra, have been charged by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in a ₹60.48 crore fraud case. The charges were filed based on a complaint by Mumbai-based businessman Deepak Kothari, who alleged the couple misused funds from a loan-cum-investment deal for their company, Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd.
According to Kothari, he was introduced to the couple in 2015 and was asked for a loan of ₹75 crore for the business. To avoid higher taxes, he was persuaded to channel the money as an “investment,” with assurances that the funds would be repaid on time. Kothari claims to have transferred a total of ₹60.48 crore between 2015 and 2016 for business expansion, funds he alleges were later diverted for personal expenses.
The businessman also stated that Shilpa Shetty provided him with a personal guarantee in April 2016 but resigned as a director of the company just months later in September. Kothari’s repeated attempts to recover his money were unsuccessful, and he later learned of a separate insolvency case against the company.
The EOW is now investigating the case, which was initially filed at Juhu Police Station under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to cheating and forgery. A lawyer for the couple, Prashant Patil, has stated that the allegations are “purely civil in nature” and that the matter has been previously adjudicated by the NCLT Mumbai.
