The Mumbai police arrested the former personal assistant of Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt on July 5 for allegedly siphoning off Rs 76.9 lakh from the bank account of her Juhu-based production company, Eternal Sunshine Productions Private Limited.
Vedika Prakash Shetty, 32, allegedly committed financial fraud between May 2022 and August 2024 while she was working as secretary to the actor. She was arrested in Bengaluru based on a complaint by Alia’s mother and actor-director Soni Razdan in January this year.
The Mumbai police secured her transit remand and brought her to the city on Tuesday. She was remanded in police custody till Thursday.
The police said that Shetty, an Andheri resident, allegedly purchased an iPhone, an iPad, a television set, a refrigerator, an air fryer, and other electronic items using the fraudulently obtained money.
The police are trying to recover the money from her, a police officer said.
Juhu police senior inspector Sunil Jadhav on Wednesday confirmed Shetty’s arrest.
As per the police complaint, Shetty’s work involved managing the actor’s schedule planning, her banking transactions, documents, and payments, etc.
“She allegedly misused her position to siphon off money,” Alia’s mother stated in the FIR.
Shetty allegedly made bogus bills of false expenses, tricked the actor into signing the cheques under the pretext of paying towards making arrangements for her outing, meetings, travelling, etc, the police said.
Shetty would then allegedly transfer this money into the account of one of her friends, who would send it back to Shetty.
The investigation officer of the case told The Indian Express that the alleged fraud was discovered by Alia.
“Shetty had sent her some statements regarding some expenses. While going through it, the actor noticed some unusual transactions worth around Rs 76,000. When she asked about it, Shetty sent her an invoice on her WhatsApp saying it was related to an expenditure related to a party. Alia noticed irregularities in the invoice too. She called the person to whom the payment was made. The person turned out to be Shetty’s friend. After this Alia’s company got all their financial activities audited through Deloitte,” said the officer.
Deloitte conducted an audit from Shetty’s joining date in May 2022 to August 2024 and reportedly found several irregularities, submitting a report to Alia’s company.
According to the complaint, Shetty had allegedly committed financial irregularities in October 2022, and upon being confronted, she admitted her mistake and apologised, the police said.
The Juhu police have been trying to trace Shetty since January, but she kept changing her locations and tried to secure anticipatory bail from the Sessions Court and the High Court, but in vain.
The police complaint also states that while working as a consultant, Shetty allegedly illegally obtained some information and documents related to Alia’s company, business operations, and personal matters of the directors. This included scripts, production schedules, director and her family’s travel arrangements, and sensitive contracts. The company became aware that Shetty was disclosing this confidential information to third parties without the company’s permission.
The investigation officer of the case told The Indian Express that the entire fraud was caught by Alia herself. (Photo/ Alia Bhatt/Instagram) 
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