The Bombay high court last week held producer Anjum Rizvi in contempt of court and sentenced him to four months in prison. Justice Gautam Patel jailed Rizvi following innumerable excuses, lying about his assets and making false promises for payment of dues to YT Capital Pvt. Ltd.
The producer was arrested earlier this week and is lodged in Arthur Road jail. In 2015, YT Capital filed a case seeking repayment of Rs. 2 crore paid to Anjum Rizvi in September 2014 for his film, Katha, which never released. The agreement between Rizvi and YT Capital had specified that the latter would have rights over the former’s previous as well as future movies till the money was paid.
The court passed an order in favour of YT Capital for recovery of Rs. 2 crore plus interest of Rs. 44 lakh. When Rizvi failed to pay, YT Capital approached the court. In April 2017, the high court stayed the release of Rizvi’s Raveena Tandon starrer, Maatr. The court also restrained him from selling or creating any rights in negatives of his seven earlier films. The stay was lifted after he coughed up Rs. 1.5 crore. Thereafter, he kept paying small amounts but there is still a pending amount of Rs. 60 lakh.
Rizvi lied to the court once the stay was lifted, and said that he did not own any assets. But his annual returns revealed that he had investments in government and other securities to the tune of Rs. 74,72,104.