E-Paper
Court dismisses US bizman’s plea to book Himesh Reshamiya, his father
Additional sessions judge AZ Khan said the US national, Vijay Taneja, 61, found out about the alleged fraud in 2008, but he approached the police only in May 2018 and again did not do anything for three more years after the police refused to take cognisance of his complaint
Mumbai: Observing that there was a delay in filing the complaint and pursuing legal remedies, the Dindoshi court dismissed a plea recently filed by a US-based businessman, seeking to prosecute playback singer and actor Himesh Reshamiya, his father, music director Vipin Reshamiya, film director Prashant Chadha and Himesh’s manager Mahendra Singh for allegedly cheating him.
Additional sessions judge AZ Khan said the US national, Vijay Taneja, 61, found out about the alleged fraud in 2008, but he approached the police only in May 2018 and again did not do anything for three more years after the police refused to take cognisance of his complaint.
Taneja moved the Dindoshi sessions court last year after the metropolitan magistrate court at Andheri, on December 14, 2021, dismissed his plea for registration of a cheating case against the four. In his plea to the court, Taneja said that he is in the business of promoting events and organising shows of actors from India in the US and other countries.
The businessman said that in 2006, Reshamiya had approached him for financing the playback singer’s upcoming movie, Aap Ka Surroor. As decided between them, a partnership deed was executed on September 25, 2006, stating that an amount of ₹40 crore would be required for producing the film, which would be completed by February 2007, the film was expected to earn around ₹100 to ₹150 crore, and the parties were to share the profit equally.
He alleged that the film was produced and in the first 6 days of its worldwide release, it earned an amount of ₹10.77 crore, but Reshamiya neither supplied him the copy of the partnership deed nor did he pay any amount to him. He claimed that the singer/actor neither repaid his investment of ₹40 crore nor the profit and therefore sought to prosecute him, his father, manager and film director for cheating and criminal breach of trust.
Claiming that there were clear elements of deception, manipulation, fraud and embezzlement of funds, Taneja had in May 2018 approached the Versova police station and approached the magistrate court after the police refused to take cognisance of his complaint.
Reshamiya, on the other hand, claimed that Taneja had received from them an amount of ₹2.27 crore towards a full and final settlement of the agreement and by an email in August 2015 agreed not to stake any claim against him, but still, he filed a proceeding before a US court and also the plea before the Andheri court.
Apart from the email sent by Taneja to Reshamiya in August 2015 that he would not stake any claim against the playback singer/actor, the court also took into consideration that the dispute between the parties was civil in nature.
