Producer Prernaa Arora allegedly used funds from film financiers to buy bungalow, designer clothes

Bollywood producer Prernaa Arora, who was arrested in December 2018 for allegedly cheating film-maker Vashu Bhagnani of a sum of Rs 31.6 crore, has also been accused of using the funds for her own personal expenses.

According to a report on Mumbai Mirror , Arora allegedly used the money from film financiers to buy a bungalow in Khandala worth Rs 8 crore through actor Sunil Shetty’s real estate company; went on a shopping spree worth Rs 3.40 crore including Rs 88 lakhs on Jimmy Choo shoes, purses and bags, Rs 1.28 crore on Burberry shoes and clothes; Rs 92 lakh on clothes, shoes and purses from Genesis La Mode Pvt Ltd and Rs 22.10 lakh on Diesel products. She reportedly owes some of the stores a total of Rs 29.40 crore. The stores have sent notices to her for payment.

A police source told the tabloid that they will add the details of her shopping spree in various other stores to the supplementary chargesheet, noting the shopping expenses alone could go “up to Rs 5 crore.”

Arora, who produced films like Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Rustom and Padman, was arrested in early December last year by the Economics Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police. She had taken money from Bhagnani’s firm Pooja Entertainment for exclusive rights of a film. She had, similarly, taken money from multiple investors promising each of them exclusive rights to the same film. None of these investors were told about the other leading to breach in contract, the Mumbai police official had said.

Bhagnani had earlier claimed he was given parallel rights for films Fanney Khan and Batti Gul Meter Chalu by Arora’s company KriArj Entertainment. Arora  had filed a bail application , which was rejected by the sessions court on Saturday.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)