Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra move HC to quash Rs 60 crore cheating case

Mumbai: Actor Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj 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 has 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.

Their pleas came up for hearing on Monday before a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekar and Justice Gautam Ankhad.

The court directed the couple to provide a copy of their petitions to the complainant, Deepak Kothari, in the case and posted the matter for hearing on November 20.

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.