Mumbai Police on Friday issued a lookout circular against actress Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra in connection with a ₹60-crore cheating case.
The economic offences wing of the Mumbai Police issued the circular, citing the couple’s frequent international travel, an official said.
The case against Shetty and Raj was registered at the Juhu police station on August 14. Sources said the couple had been charged with defrauding a Mumbai-based businessman of ₹60 crore. The case is linked to a loan-cum-investment deal for the celebrity couple’s now-defunct Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd. The couple had earlier denied the allegations as “baseless and malicious”.
A lookout circular is sent out to prevent a person from leaving the country or to track their movements, typically by issuing an alert to immigration and border control points.
The Mumbai-based businessman, Deepak Kothari, has accused Shilpa and Raj
of diverting business expansion funds between 2015 and 2023 for personal use, said
an official.
Kothari alleged that the couple initially sought a loan of ₹75 crore at 12 per cent interest but later persuaded him to route the funds as an “investment” to reduce taxation, with promises of monthly returns and principal repayment, the official said.
Relying on these assurances, Kothari claimed he transferred ₹31.95 crore in April 2015 under a share subscription agreement and an additional ₹28.53 crore in September 2015 through a supplementary agreement.
In November last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids on the premises of Raj and his associates in Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh in connection with the pornography case against him.
The premises which were raided and searched include Raj’s home and office in Juhu in connection with the alleged distribution of pornographic and adult movies via mobile applications.
Raj was arrested in the pornography case, but he was later granted bail.
Earlier, the ED had also attached assets worth ₹98 crore of Raj and Shilpa under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a separate Bitcoin case.