HC convicts producer for contempt; told to surrender

Bollywood producer Prernaa Arora was convicted for contempt of court and ordered to be detained in civil prison for six months by the Bombay high court (HC) on February

Bollywood producer Prernaa Arora was convicted for contempt of court and ordered to be detained in civil prison for six months by the Bombay high court (HC) on February 24.

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Justice GS Kulkarni also ordered the Arora, who is the producer of movies such as ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ and ‘Padman’, to surrender before the Azad Maidan police station before March 2 to serve the term. A non-bailable warrant has been issued against her and the police was directed to execute the warrant if she fails to surrender before the given date.

The order came on proceedings initiated by Gothic Entertainment against KriArj Entertainment and its directors, Arora and Protima Arora, for the execution of a settlement before an arbitral tribunal. Under the settlement, KriArj had agreed to pay ₹25 crore to Gothic but it failed to clear two instalments of over ₹2.5 crore. As cheques for the instalments returned dishonoured, Gothic moved HC for execution of the settlement.

“This company, Gothic, was a partial investor in KriArj. The principal amount has been paid to them. There’s a pending interest amount of ₹2.85 crore, which I will pay by May,” Arora said.

Several orders were passed by different benches of the HC on Gothic’s application from February 2019 onwards. One of the orders directed KriArj and its directors to furnish a list of their assets, annual returns, profit and loss accounts and balance sheets.

As Protima was absconding, by a subsequent order, Arora was ordered to make disclosures of their movable and immovable assets.

On November 18, 2019, Arora gave an undertaking to pay a sum of ₹3 crore to Gothic in instalments towards full and final settlement. On February 5, Gothic told the court that Arora had breached this undertaking. She, however, did not even reply to the show-cause notice. Justice Kulkarni said that KriArj directors appeared to be habitual in breaching court orders.

With inputs from Titas Chowdhury