Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her husband, Raj Kundra, have been booked for their alleged involvement in defrauding a businessman of Rs 60 crore by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and Mumbai Police. A case has been registered against their now fossilised company, Best Deal TV Pvt. Ltd. Deep Kothari, the businessman in question, filed the case against the couple, accusing them of conspiring to cheat him of Rs 60 crore between 2015 and 2023.
The director of Lotus Capital Financial Services, Kothari, said in his complaint that the Kundra couple was introduced to him by a mediator named Rajesh Arya. The then directors of Best Deal TV, an online retail platform, held 87.6% stake in the company. Seeking a loan from Kothari, he claimed that Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra had allegedly sought a loan of Rs 75 crore with 12% interest. In an attempt to avoid higher taxation, he was convinced to re-route this loan as an “investment”, claimed Kothari.
Kothari’s Rs 60 crore ‘investment’
Kothari claimed he transferred Rs 31.95 crore in April 2015 under a share subscription agreement, and another Rs 28.53 crore in September 2015 under a supplementary agreement. The total amount was credited to Best Deal TV’s bank accounts.
The businessman made repeated attempts to recover the funds and allegedly failed. Kothari accused both Shilpa Shetty and her husband, who ran now-defunct Best Deal TV, of “dishonestly using” the money for personal benefit.
The Economic Offences Wing‘s investigation is underway with a detailed probe into the couple’s financial history, the agreements in the deal with Kothari. There is a special focus on the allegation of misappropriating funds worth Rs 60 crore.
Kundras’ tryst with trouble
Raj Kundra’s legal trouble did not come to the limelight today. In 2021, he was allegedly producing adult content for a mobile application, ‘Hotshots’. He was accused of being the key organiser of such pornographic content after actor Gehana Vashish testified she was paid to act in such films. Reportedly, they featured Viaan Industries, a Kundra firm, and family photographs of the Kundra clan. More recently in 2024, the couple was involved in a nearly Rs 100 crore Bitcoin scandal. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleged that they found properties worth more than Rs 97 crore linked to a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme. Shortly after an investigation, the residences were sealed and their assets were seized.
In this series of this controversial couple, rumours took fruition in 2013 when Raj Kundra was accused of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League. However, no formal charges have been registered to this date.