EOW summons Raj Kundra in Rs 60-crore cheating case

An FIR was lodged against the couple by Deepak Kothari, the director of Lotus Capital Financial Services Ltd — a non-banking financial company, which provides loans. In his FIR, Kothari alleged the couple approached him through a loan agent Rajesh Arya, as they wanted to take a business loan. Subsequently, a meeting was arranged in a five-star hotel in Juhu, where Kundra, Shilpa, Arya and the complainant, along with his son, met in 2015.

As per the FIR, the couple claimed they were directors of Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd, a now-defunct home shopping and online retail platform. At the time, Shilpa reportedly held 87.61 per cent of the shares in the company. Both allegedly sought a loan of Rs 75 crore at 12 per cent interest, and the complainant agreed. However, the FIR said, the couple persuaded him to route the funds as “investment” to avoid higher taxation, while assuring monthly returns and repayment of principal.

Believing the assurances, Kothari agreed and transferred Rs 31.95 crore in April 2015 under a share subscription agreement, followed by Rs 28.53 crore under a supplementary agreement in September 2015. The amount was allegedly credited to Best Deal TV’s HDFC Bank accounts, and the couple had paid stamp duty of Rs 3.19 lakh, the complainant alleged in the FIR. Kothari alleged he had given the couple a loan of Rs 60.4 crore for business expansion between 2015 and 2023.

The FIR further states that despite providing a personal guarantee, the complainant received an email from Shilpa’s email address that she had resigned as director in September 2016 from Best Deal TV. Kothari asked the reasons, but she did not give a satisfactory answer and avoided him. Kothari said he and his company made repeated attempts to recover the money from Kundra and Shetty, and a mediator, but failed, as they cited pandemic-related delays. Kothari eventually found that the couple had allegedly used the funds for personal benefit and had cheated him.

Kothari later discovered that insolvency proceedings had been initiated against the company in 2017 for defaulting on another agreement and approached the police.

The case has been handed over to the EOW as the amount involved exceeded Rs 10 crore.