HC refuses to allow Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra to travel abroad

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to grant any interim relief to actor Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra, who have challenged the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued by the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police against them in connection with a ₹65-crore cheating case.

The couple was seeking the court’s permission to travel to Phuket for a family trip from October 2-5.

During the hearing, advocates Niranjan Mundargi and Keral Mehta, appearing for Shetty and Kundra, pointed out a 2021 criminal case against the couple and argued that despite earlier cases registered against them, they have cooperated with investigators, travelled outside India multiple times, and always returned.

“The couple has been allowed by the court to travel on 12 occasions between 2022 and 2025. They have travelled and duly followed the conditions”, Kundra’s counsel said, adding that the businessman has already been questioned by the Mumbai police and faced summons.

On the other hand, chief public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh urged the court not to entertain the plea, clarifying that the couple has two serious criminal cases pending against them. “It would not be appropriate to grant relief at this stage,” he said.

The bench of chief justice Shree Chandrashekhar and justice Gautam Ankhad asked additional public prosecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh to file a detailed reply to their plea and posted the matter for further hearing on October 8. The couple, in their petition, had highlighted their future travel plans between October 2025 and January 2026 for business and personal reasons.

Kundra was arrested on July 19, 2021, on charges of making pornographic content and publishing it on mobile apps. Later, in 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a money laundering case against Kundra in connection with the production and circulation of pornography content, charges he has been denying since his arrest.

Then, in August this year, the EOW registered a case against Kundra and Shetty for allegedly cheating businessman Deepak Kothari of ₹60.48 crore. The 60-year-old director of Lotus Capital Financial Services alleged that he lost the money in a loan-cum-investment deal with the couple and their company, Best Deal TV Private Limited.

Kothari claimed that the couple’s firm asked him to transfer the money as an investment and promised him monthly returns. Accordingly, Kothari said he transferred the money in two instalments in 2015: ₹31.95 crore in April and another ₹28.53 crore in September.

A year later, in 2016, Shetty resigned from the company. Kothari then discovered that insolvency proceedings had been initiated against the company for cheating another investor. He claimed that his repeated attempts to get his money back failed, which prompted him to approach the police.

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