Mumbai’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered a case against actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra, her businessman husband Raj Kundra, and an unidentified person for allegedly cheating a local businessman of ₹60.48 crore in a loan-cum-investment deal linked to their now defunct company, Best Deal TV Pvt Ltd.
The FIR, initially filed at Juhu police station under IPC sections related to cheating and forgery, was transferred to the EOW as the amount exceeded ₹10 crore. The complaint was lodged by Deepak Kothari (60), a Juhu-based director of Lotus Capital Financial Services, through advocates Dr. Yusuf Iqbal and Zain Shroff, following a preliminary inquiry.
Kothari alleged that Rajesh Arya introduced him to Shilpa and Raj, who at the time held 87.6% shares in Best Deal TV, a home shopping and online retail platform. The couple allegedly sought a ₹75 crore loan at 12% interest but later convinced him to route the money as an “investment” to avoid higher taxes, assuring monthly returns and principal repayment. Kothari claims to have transferred ₹31.95 crore in April 2015 under a share subscription agreement, followed by ₹28.53 crore in September 2015 under a supplementary agreement.
According to the FIR, despite providing a personal guarantee in April 2016, Shetty resigned as a director in September the same year. Kothari later discovered insolvency proceedings against the company in 2017 over defaults on another agreement. He claims repeated recovery attempts have failed, with delays attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
