₹60.48-crore cheating case: Shilpa Shetty withdraws plea to travel abroad after HC’s disinclination

Shetty had earlier sought to visit Los Angeles between October 21 and 24 to attend a YouTube event, and later Colombo and the Maldives for business-related engagements linked to her hospitality venture, Hotel Bastian. The court, however, had questioned the necessity of her travel and sought to examine the invitation or agreement for the event

MUMBAI: Actor Shilpa Shetty on Thursday withdrew her application before the Bombay High Court seeking permission to travel abroad, after the bench expressed its unwillingness to grant her relief.

₹60.48-crore cheating case: Shilpa Shetty withdraws plea to travel abroad after HC’s disinclination

Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra have approached the court challenging Look Out Circulars (LOCs) issued against them by the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in connection with a ₹60.48-crore cheating case.

Appearing before a division bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Gautam Ankhad, their counsel, advocate Niranjan Mundargi, informed the court that Shetty was not pressing her plea as her plans to travel had not materialised. “As and when she and her husband desire to travel in future, they will file a fresh application seeking permission from the court,” Mundargi said.

Shetty had earlier sought to visit Los Angeles between October 21 and 24 to attend a YouTube event, and later Colombo and the Maldives for business-related engagements linked to her hospitality venture, Hotel Bastian. The court, however, had questioned the necessity of her travel and sought to examine the invitation or agreement for the event.

The bench has now posted the couple’s main petition challenging the LOCs for further hearing on November 17.

The cheating case stems from a complaint lodged by businessman Deepak Kothari, director of Lotus Capital Financial Services, who alleged that the couple induced him to invest ₹60.48 crore in their company, Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd, between 2015 and 2023. Kothari claimed that the money was diverted for personal use, and that his attempts to recover the investment failed.

According to the complaint, Kothari transferred ₹31.95 crore in April 2015 and another ₹28.53 crore in September the same year. In 2016, Shetty resigned from the company, and Kothari later discovered insolvency proceedings had been initiated against it over similar allegations by another investor.

An FIR was registered against the couple in August this year, following which the EOW issued LOCs preventing them from leaving the country.

During earlier hearings, the high court had remarked that it could not permit leisure travel when the accused were facing serious allegations of fraud, and indicated it would consider lifting the LOC only if the couple deposited ₹60 crore with the court.

Kundra also faces a separate criminal case relating to the alleged production and distribution of pornographic content. He was arrested in July 2021 and later granted bail. The Enforcement Directorate subsequently registered a money laundering case against him in 2022, which he continues to deny involvement in.