A new update came connected to an old case involving Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, a Surat court fined a lawyer ₹25,000. This happened because the lawyer, Minesh Jhaveri, who represents Shilpa’s mother, Sunanda Shetty, was absent from a hearing. Instead, one of his junior lawyers came to court without proper paperwork showing they were allowed to appear in his place. So, the judge fined the junior lawyer for this mistake.

What is the case about?

The issue started way back in 1998 when Shilpa Shetty agreed to be in a TV ad for a brand called Prafful Sarees, based in Surat. She had signed a contract for one year. But after the year was over, the ad kept being shown on TV.

Shilpa believed this was against the agreement, and she sent a legal notice to the owner, Pankaj Agrawal. She reportedly asked him to pay her ₹80 lakh for showing the ad for four extra years.

Later, in 2003, Agrawal went to the police and said he got a threatening call from an underworld don named Fazl-ur-Rehman. The caller allegedly asked him to pay ₹2 crore and claimed he was doing it on behalf of Shilpa Shetty.

After this complaint, the police filed a case. They named Shilpa Shetty’s parents—Sunanda and Surendra Shetty—along with her former secretary Dilip Palsekar, Fazl-ur-Rehman, and two others.

Some of the accused, including Shilpa Shetty’s parents, were arrested but later released on bail. In 2010, formal charges were framed against them, and the trial finally began in 2013. Since then, the case has been progressing slowly in court.



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