MUMBAI– Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, named as a co-accused along with her businessman husband Raj Kundra in a Rs 60 crore fraud case, has withdrawn her petition from the Bombay High Court seeking permission to travel to Los Angeles, her lawyer said on Thursday.
The withdrawal came after Shetty’s planned trip to the United States for an event with YouTube influencer MrBeast was canceled. Her advocates informed a division bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad that the actress would no longer pursue the plea for temporary relaxation of the Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against her.
The High Court will now hear the couple’s broader plea seeking to quash the LOC on November 17.
The case against Shetty and Kundra stems from their tenure as directors of Best Deal TV Private Limited, a now-defunct home shopping and online retail company. The Mumbai Police registered a case on August 14 after businessman Deepak Kothari alleged that the couple duped him of nearly Rs 60 crore through a loan-cum-investment deal.
During Thursday’s hearing, Kothari’s lawyers accused Shetty of perjury and claimed that the affidavit she filed seeking permission to leave the country contained irregularities, including a missing signature on one of the pages. They also alleged forgery in the preparation and notarization of the document.
The court granted Kothari’s counsel permission to pursue separate legal action against Shetty for the alleged inconsistencies in her affidavit.
Last month, Shetty and Kundra filed a joint petition requesting that the LOC against them be suspended from October 2025 to January 2026 to allow them to travel abroad for professional and personal reasons. The court, however, said it could not allow leisure travel while the duo remains accused in a pending fraud case.
Raj Kundra, during questioning by Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on October 10, claimed that his company suffered major financial losses following India’s 2016 demonetization and was therefore unable to repay borrowed funds. He told investigators that Best Deal TV, which traded in electrical and household appliances, had been severely impacted by the policy change.
This was Kundra’s second recorded statement in the case, and officials said he would be summoned again in the coming weeks. Shilpa Shetty was also questioned by the EOW for more than four hours in connection with the same matter.
Complainant Deepak Kothari has alleged that the Rs 60 crore provided to Shetty and Kundra between 2015 and 2023 for business expansion was instead diverted toward their personal expenses. (Source: IANS)
