The Bombay high court on November 10 ruled that producer Boney Kapoor cannot be held liable to pay interest in a 24-year-old case under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act, after the main accused in the original financial fraud case was acquitted.
A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Shyam C. Chandak delivered the order disposing of Boney’s appeal. The proceedings stem from a 2003 MPID case against Ajay Thakkar and his wife, Bhavana Thakkar. They were accused of running a financial scheme which collected deposits from the public with promises of high returns. After Ajay Thakkar’s demise, only Bhavana faced trial. The Special MPID court ultimately acquitted her.
Parallel to the criminal case, a separate MPID proceeding under section 8 of the Act was initiated against Boney Kapoor’s Narsimha Enterprises. Boney had borrowed Rs. 29 lakh from Ajay Thakkar. The competent authority had directed Boney to deposit the amount, treating it as money owed back to the accused so it could be used for investor repayment.
Although Boney argued that the loan was already settled by handing over a Mercedes Benz car to another creditor, the designated court ordered that the amount be deposited and further directed the producer to pay 18% simple interest on that amount from April 1, 2001 to December 27, 2019. On Boney Kapoor’s appeal, the Bombay high court noted that the principal sum of Rs. 29 lakh has already been deposited and will be adjusted according to an earlier judgement dated 13 May, 2025, which deals with the disbursement of unpaid investor claims. Following the acquittal of the main accused in the MPID case, the bench held that Boney Kapoor can no longer be held responsible for paying the interest amount imposed by the 2020 order. The judges clarified that no further liability survived against him and, therefore, the appeal stood disposed of.
