Bombay high court orders trial court to release Rakesh Roshan’s ₹20 lakh

The money was part of the ₹50 lakh that Rakesh Roshan lost to two men who posed as officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2011

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed a Mumbai court to release ₹20 lakh lying in its custody as case property in a cheating case filed by filmaker Rakesh Roshan back in 2011.

Filmaker Rakesh Roshan.

Justice MS Karnik ordered the special CBI court to release the money, noting that the court recently convicted the second of the two accused, Ashwini Kumar Sharma, for cheating, extortion, and impersonation, and sentenced him to three years imprisonment. His accomplice, Rajesh Rajan, was also sentenced to three years in prison in 2022.

The money was part of the ₹50 lakh that Rakesh Roshan lost to two men who posed as officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2011 on the pretext of settling a pending case against him. Upon realising the fraud, the filmmaker lodged a complaint with the CBI, leading to the arrest of the two accused and the seizure of gold and cash.

But the money was not returned to Rakesh Roshan since it became the case property.

Roshan first approached the trial judge for the release of the money in October 2012. The court permitted him to withdraw ₹30 lakh on the condition that he furnishes an indemnity bond for the amount.

The judge also ruled that Roshan would receive the remaining amount after the conclusion of the trial. But when the case lingered, the filmmaker returned to the trial court in August 2020 to seek access to the remaining ₹20 lakh. But the prosecution opposed the move, saying he would have to wait for the trial to end and that he hadn’t challenged the ruling within the permissible time. The request was finally rejected in December 2021 by the special court. Rakesh Roshan later approached the high court against this verdict.