Actress Shilpa Shetty and her businessman husband Raj Kundra have challenged in the High Court the notice issued by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to vacate a bungalow in Juhu and a farmhouse in Pavana in a financial misappropriation case related to the Bitcoin scam. Taking cognizance of their plea, the court issued a notice to the ED on Wednesday and scheduled an urgent hearing on the matter on Thursday.
Shilpa and Raj's petition came up for hearing on Wednesday before a bench of Justice Revathi Mohite-Dere and Justice Prithviraj Chavan. At that time, the court issued a notice to the ED and ordered it to clarify its position on the petition.
The ED had issued notices to Shilpa and Raj on September 27, ordering them to vacate their residence in Juhu and their farmhouse in Pavana within 10 days. After receiving this notice on October 3, the couple approached the High Court against it. Shilpa and Raj have demanded that the notice issued by the ED is arbitrary and illegal and should be quashed. Petitioners are not required to vacate their seats immediately. Moreover, the petitioner has been living in the house at Juhu along with six family members for the past two decades.
Therefore, it was requested at the hearing on behalf of the couple that the plea of the petitioners should also be looked at from the perspective of humanity, and also an interim stay of the notice pending the final hearing of the petition.
The ED had filed a complaint against Amit Bhardwaj and a few others in 2018 on charges of bitcoin fraud and financial misappropriation. In this case, ED had called Raj Kundra several times for questioning during the investigation. After each summons, Kundra appeared before the investigating agency. Both Shilpa and Raj have not been accused in this case.
Meanwhile, in April, the couple received a notice from the ED ordering temporary attachment of their property in Pune, including a residential property in Juhu purchased by Kundra's father in 2009. Both Shilpa and Raj responded to the notice. Even then, notices to vacate the residential house and farmhouse were sent to them. A notice cannot be sent in this manner before you have been proved guilty. Basically, it is claimed in the petition that Kundra's place of residence has no connection with the crime or any amount of the crime.
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