In 2016, businessman Raj Kundra said he could not pay back a loan, as 500 and 1000 notes were suddenly demonetized. An NDTV report claimed that Kundra, who is married to actor Shilpa Shetty, is under scrutiny over a ₹60 crore fraud case. The case entails allegations against Mumbai-based businessman Deepak Kothari, who states that Raj Kundra and Shetty defrauded him by a loan-cum-investment deal that was related to Best Deal TV Private Limited, an online retail and home shopping company that is no longer operational. The couple was then the directors of the company.
The lawsuit was filed on August 14, and it charges the two men with misappropriating the money given by Kothari between 2015 and 2023. The probe is under the Economic Offences Wing (EDW) of the Mumbai Police. Kothari, the director of Lotus Capital Financial Services, also accuses that the money was to be used to expand the business, but instead was channeled to personal reasons.
According to the complaint, Kothari had transferred 31.95 crore in April 2015, under a share subscription agreement, and 28.53 crore in September 2015, under a supplementary agreement- a total of almost 60 crore. The whole amount was placed in the accounts of Best Deal TV. The interest rate was agreed at 12 per cent, and Kothari was even made to think that it was a loan facility. He, however, says that Kundra and Shetty had subsequently asked him to consider the money as an investment, and they would pay him monthly returns plus repayment of the principal.
Kothari later reported that he later found out that insolvency was being pursued against the company because of claims of defrauding another investor. After this, Shilpa Shetty quit as a director of Best Deal TV. Kothari states that no repayments have been made even after years of efforts to reclaim the money.
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