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Priya is trying to control assets, not mourn death: Sunjay Kapur’s mother
Sunjay Kapur's mother alleges his wife Priya concealed assets after his death, seeking court intervention to halt asset control amid will disputes.
Late industrialist Sunjay Kapur’s mother on Monday told the Delhi high court that instead of grieving his death, his wife Priya Kapur “has acted swiftly to take control of his assets”.
Sunjay’s mother Rani Kapur alleged “massive concealment” of her son’s assets by Priya.
Rani’s lawyers, Vaibhav Gaggar and Smriti Churiwal, urged Justice Jyoti Singh’s bench to order a status quo on Sunjay’s assets, arguing that despite Sunjay earning a salary of ₹60 crore, Priya in the list of assets submitted before the court, had only reported a balance of only ₹1.7 crore. Gaggar also pointed out that the asset list omitted details of his mutual funds, life insurance, rental income, and luxury watches and there was suspicion that the money had been moved abroad.
“The argument taken was that there has been a frank disclosure of this man’s assets as directed by your ladyship, showing ₹1.7 crore in the bank accounts. His salary was ₹60 crore. Multi-billionaire has ₹1.7 crore in the bank account, has 6 watches.. …. shares of Sona Comstar of about 6.5%, which is roughly ₹650 odd crores, so this gentleman full disclosure…..It is absurd that a man of such stature and high net worth does not have a life insurance policy,” Gaggar submitted.
Gaggar contended that, rather than mourning her husband’s death, Priya acted swiftly to take control of assets belonging to the Kapur family. He cited as an example her move to appoint Dinesh Aggarwal, one of the witnesses to Sunjay’s will, as a director of Aureous the very next day after Sunjay passed away. He added that the star witnesses of the will, including Dinesh Aggarwal and Nitin Sharma, were closely working at Priya’s “dictate”, who was the sole beneficiary under the will and which raised doubts regarding the fairness of the will.
“Star witnesses (of the will) are closely working at the dictate of the propounder & sole beneficiary. They are totally going to be speaking for only 1 side. Fairness doesn’t seem to be anywhere in this,” the senior lawyer added.
The submissions were made in the children’s suit seeking a 1/5th share from their father’s estate. Sunjay, who was the chairperson of Sona Comstar, died of cardiac arrest while playing polo in London on June 12 this year. He was earlier married to designer Nandita Mahtani, and later to actor Karisma Kapoor, with whom he has two children — Samaira and Kiaan. After their divorce in 2016, he married model-actor and businesswoman Priya in 2017, with whom he had a son, Azarius.
In their suit filed on September 9, Samaira and Kiaan claimed that Priya produced the will for the first time at a family meeting on July 30, without any prior disclosure of its existence. They sought the share, alleging that Priya, in conspiracy with Nitin Sharma and Dinesh Agarwal, the attesting witnesses, had fabricated the document under “suspicious circumstances”.
Previously, Priya had asserted that it was a “healthy tradition” for a husband to give all his assets to his wife, and the same is followed in Sunjay Kapur’s family as well, since her father-in-law had also bequeathed his assets to his wife, Rani Kapur. However, Gaggar argued during Monday’s hearing that the circumstances of Priya and Sunjay’s marriage were not comparable to her own. Priya and Sunjay’s seven-year marriage, Gaggar said, had been plagued by persistent marital discord since 2023, due to which Priya was also removed from the position of Managing Director of Aureus.
Gaggar also submitted Priya’s argument that the children’s interest had been taken care of by transferring ₹1900 crore from the Rani Kapur family trust was incorrect since neither she nor Sunjay were entitled under the law to transfer the interest from the trust. “Trust is not inheritance, it has nothing to do with it,” Gaggar argued.
He further argued that the will was surrounded by suspicious circumstances, noting that despite Sunjay’s assertion that he had received everything from his mother, she was not mentioned in the will at all.
The hearing will continue on December 3.
