A Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Mumbai, on Tuesday, cancelled the bailable warrant issued against Sunanda Shetty, mother of actors Shilpa Shetty and Shamita Shetty, in connection with a loan default and cheating case and granted her bail.
The case is based on a complaint filed by an automobile agency owner who claimed that Shetty, along with her mother and sister, had cheated him of Rs 21 lakh, by not repaying a loan he had issued to the actor’s late father, Surendra Shetty.
Surendra Shetty had borrowed the sum in 2015 at an annual interest rate of 18% and it was due in January 2017. However, Surendra died in October 2016 and the amount was not repaid. The complainant alleged that the sisters and their mother refused to repay the loan, which was issued to Corgifts, a Shetty family firm, despite having prior knowledge of it.
Following the complaint, in February, the Andheri Magistrate court had issued summons to the trio to appear before the court.
Shetty and her family had then moved the Dindoshi sessions court challenging the proceedings initiated against them at the Andheri Magistrate court.
In her plea before the sessions court, Shetty had said that she and her sister were being involved in the case because they were actors and the objective was to hurt their public standing and use criminal proceedings to extort the amount from them.
In March, the sessions court stayed the proceedings against Shilpa and Shamita Shetty as no evidence was submitted to show that the sisters were connected to the firm or had anything to do with the loan.
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However, the sessions court said the case against their mother could continue as the actors’ parents were listed as partners in the firm that borrowed the sum.
The Magistrate court, meanwhile, issued a bailable warrant against Sunanda Shetty, when she failed to appear for a hearing of the case.
On Tuesday, the actor’s mother appeared before the court and filed a plea to cancel the warrant. The court approved her request and granted her bail on a personal bond and surety of Rs 15,000 or a provisional cash bail of Rs 25,000.