Raj Kundra & Shilpa Shetty Kundra’s Advocate Prashant Patil Quoted on on-going case

Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra got relief from the Bombay High Court after their eviction notice from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was put on hold. The couple had earlier contested their eviction notice in court concerning a money laundering case.

Prashant Patil, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra’s lawyer, denied any involvement in the Ponzi scheme in a statement. It read, “To begin with, we want to clarify the false media reports implying that Mr. Raj Kundra and his wife, Mrs. Shilpa Shetty Kundra, are linked to the cryptocurrency Ponzi scam. This is not even a matter being pursued by the Enforcement Directorate. It is made clear that Mr. Kundra and Mrs. Shetty have no ties to the alleged Ponzi scheme, which dates back to 2017.”

The statement indicated that although the court has issued a stay on the eviction notice, Shetty and Kundra plan to appeal before the Appellate Tribunal in Delhi. It also noted that the couple will keep cooperating with the ED until the case is resolved. It continued, “An eviction notice was issued by the ED against my clients’, residential properties, which has been stayed by the Honourable High Court, granting Mr Raj Kundra and Mrs. Shilpa Shetty time to file an appeal before the Honourable Appellate Tribunal in Delhi for further relief. It is the duty of my clients to continue cooperating with the Enforcement Directorate’s investigation.”

The couple approached the Bombay High Court on Wednesday after getting an eviction notice from the ED. The notice, issued on September 27, required them to leave their properties in Juhu and Pawna Lake by October 13. Reports also indicate that the Mumbai Zonal Office provisionally attached assets valued at ?97.79 crore belonging to Raj Kundra under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.

Previously, in April, the ED had temporarily attached assets worth ?97.79 crore belonging to businessman Kundra, including a Juhu apartment registered in Shilpa Shetty’s name, during a money-laundering investigation connected to a ?6,600-crore bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme. As per ED sources, Kundra reportedly received 285 bitcoins, estimated at around ?150 crore, from the deceased mastermind of the case, Amit Bhardwaj, for a failed Bitcoin mining venture in Ukraine. In addition to the Juhu apartment, the agency had temporarily attached a bungalow in Pune and his equity shares.