Producer Prernaa Arora sentenced to six months imprisonment for contempt of court after failing to pay creditors due

The Bombay High Court has convicted Bollywood producer Prernaa Arora of contempt of court and sentenced her to imprisonment for six months, reports Hindustaan Times. Arora, who has produced movies such as Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and PadMan, was originally asked to surrender at the Azad Maidan police station in Mumbai before March 2 to serve the prison term.

However, she appealed to against the order before a division bench of the Bombay High Court, following which the court moved the date to 23 March. Reports also suggests that the judge has issued a non-bailable warrant for her arrest and directed the police to execute the warrant if she fails to surrender.

The order comes after the proceedings initiated by Gothic Entertainment against KriArj Entertainment and its directors, Prernaa and Protima Arora for execution of a settlement reached before an arbitral tribunal. The producer had given the court an undertaking that she would repay Rs 1 crore of Rs 3 crore settlement, however, she failed to do so. Following which the court sentenced her six months of jail for aggravated contempt of court. According to Mumbai Mirror, Justice GS Kulkarni said, “Arora neither has any regard for the process of law nor for the orders of the court and consistently undermine the authority of the court.”

Several orders were passed on Gothic's application, one of which  directed KriArj and its directors to furnish list of their assets, annual returns, profit and loss accounts and balance sheets. However, Justice Kulkarni noted that the film producer did not comply with any of these orders and on 18 November, 2019 gave an undertaking to pay a sum of Rs. 3 crore to Gothic in instalments towards a full and final settlement.

On 5 February, 2020, Gothic notified the court that Prernaa Arora had breached the undertaking as well; the judge then issued a notice asking her why action for contempt of court should not be taken against her.

Previously, Prernaa was arrested in early December 2018 by the Economics Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police. She had taken money from Vashu 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.

 

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