Rajini’s wife Latha to face trial over repayment of dues
The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Karnataka high court order quashing the FIR filed against Latha Rajinikanth, wife of actor Rajinikanth, on a private complaint of cheating in re- payment of loan for the production of the film Kochadaiyan directed by her daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth.
A three- judge bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi, R. Banumathi and Navin Sinha after hearing counsel for Ad Bureau, which had given the loan of ` 10 crores, and counsel for Latha Rajinikanth faulted the high court for quashing the FIR at the threshold stage.
The court set aside the high court and said, “This is a fit case for commencement of trial.” The bench said it was open to Latha to seek discharge at the appropriate stage.
After the high court quashed the FIR, the Bengaluru police did not proceed with the probe. With the SC setting aside the high court order, it will be open to the police to proceed with the probe and file the chargesheet in the competent court.
In February, an undertaking was given to the court on behalf of Latha to pay the dues of ` 6.20 crore to Ad Bureau. This was, however, disputed by the counsel Balaji Srinivasan, who said the undertaking was given by the previous counsel without any authority. As the amount to be repaid was disputed, the court proceeded to hear the matter on merits.
The dispute dates back to 2014 when a financial dispute arose during the production of the film.