Another chapter in a spiteful family feud – over an eye-popping Rs 30,000 crore fortune – played out in the Delhi High Court Wednesday with businessman Sunjay Kapur‘s third wife, Priya Kapur, to whom he was married when he died in June last year, accusing her mother-in-law, Rani Kapur, of perjury.
Responding to a civil suit by Rani Kapur – who claimed the RK Family Trust, i.e., the Rani Kapur Family Trust, was used to illegally appropriate her assets – Priya Kapur claimed her mother-in-law had, in fact, “played a fraud on the court” and sought dismissal of the case against the Trust.
“Yesterday the court suggested mediation and urged Priya to take proactive steps… and today she is filing perjury charges against an 80-year-old,” the mother-in-law’s lawyer told the court.
Priya Kapur’s allegation followed the High Court’s observations yesterday about the “washing of dirty linen in public”. The court said, “God blessed the family with significant wealth that should be enjoyed by everyone”, and urged Rani Kapur, Priya Kapur, and others, including Sunjay Kapur’s second wife – actor Karisma Kapoor and her children, son Kiaan and daughter Samaira, to consider mediation.
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The court then issued a notice seeking Rani Kapur’s response within four weeks.
A rejoinder may be filed within two weeks, the court said.
The application filed by Priya Kapur sought dismissal of the civil suit on grounds of gross abuse of process and alleged Rani Kapur cheated the court by lying and concealing material facts.
Rani Kapur – who last year said she had been coerced into signing documents while grieving her son’s death – wanted the trust to be declared “the result of fraud, forgery, and undue influence”. She also sought consequential reliefs, including dissolution of the trust and restitution of all assets.
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According to the suit, Rani Kapur is the sole beneficiary and legatee of the estate of her husband Surinder Kapur, founder and promoter of the Sona Group, who died in June 2015.
Surinder Kapur’s will was probated in January 2016 without objection by Sunjay Kapur.
The suit alleges that after a stroke in September 2017, Rani Kapur became physically and emotionally dependent on her son and Priya Kapur, his third wife, who allegedly took advantage of this to secretly divert her assets into the RK Family Trust without her consent.
Each side, and this includes actor Karisma Kapoor and her children, son Kiaan and daughter Samaira – Sunjay Kapur’s children from his marriage to the actor, who was his second wife – has accused and counter-accused the other of cheating and subterfuge as they jostle for a share.
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In early December, for example, Rani Kapur accused Priya Kapur of concealing her son’s wealth, questioning claims he had only Rs 1.7 crore in cash and no investments despite a Rs 60 crore salary.
In November Priya Kapur’s lawyers compared Karisma Kapoor’s children to “a wealthy Oliver Twist, who wants more” and the actor’s children, who earlier accused Priya Kapur of having forged the will being attributed to their father, have also accused her of filing an incomplete list of his assets in court.
Sunjay Kapur, 53, died playing polo in London on June 12 last year.
The cause of death was listed as a cardiac arrest, but there were reports he suffered an anaphylactic shock. His mother, however, hinted darkly at a “transnational conspiracy” leading to the “murder” of her son. But in August – after weeks of speculation – British medical authorities confirmed he died of natural causes, and listed left ventricular hypertrophy and ischemic heart disease as the causes of death.