Kerala HC stays 3-year-old cheating case against Sunny Leone

Kochi (Kerala) [India], November 16 (ANI): Kerala High Court on Wednesday stayed the proceedings in a cheating case registered against actor Sunny Leone, her husband Daniel Weber and their employee Sunil Rajani.
The gist of the allegations against the couple is that they have allegedly breached the terms of a contract for stage performance and the case was registered under sections 34, 406, and 420 of the IPC in Ernakulam Crime Branch police station on August 2, 2019.
The complainant, Shiyas Kunju Mohammed alleged that she had failed to attend a function in Kochi in 2019 after accepting a payment of around Rs 39 lakhs.
Now the Single Bench of Justice Ziyad Rahman AA stayed the case on a petition filed by Sunny Leone, her husband and their employee seeking to quash all proceedings in the case.
Sunny Leone and her husband contended in the petition that, "the allegations raised will not constitute the ingredients of the offences alleged against the petitioners. Petitioners have not committed the offences alleged. Petitioners are innocent of the allegations raised by the complainant and no manner of criminality can be attributed against them."
They further contended that "petitioners are put to untold miseries, irreparable losses and injuries in making them face the long drawn process of trial when no material or cogent evidence has been found against them. Petitioners' life is being tumbled down in the name of an alleged offence in which they are completely innocent."
No manner of loss or damage is caused to the complainant at the instance of the petitioners and all contentions contrary to the same are not at all correct and hence denied. The complainant is misusing the criminal proceedings for arm-twisting the petitioners to budge to his exorbitant and illegal demands. The entire proceedings presently initiated by the complainant is a clear abuse of the criminal law of the country, they said.
The allegations raised by the complainant against the petitioners is that petitioners supposedly entered into a contract with him for performing stage shows in Kerala and abroad and supposedly received an alleged sum of around Rs 39 lakhs and thereafter, committed a breach of contract by not performing the stage show and purportedly failed to return the money received." (ANI)