The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered actor-politician Rajinikanth's wife Latha to face trial for not complying with an undertaking to pay Rs 6.2 crore that she owed to a movie distribution company for the post-production work of Tamil film Kochadaiyaan.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi has set aside a Karnataka High Court decision of 2016 to quash criminal proceedings against Latha. The High Court had said that the case was not of fraud, but a breach of agreement. The Apex Court, however, said that the High Court should not have cancelled the complaint at the initial stage. Justice Gogoi ordered her to face trial, and said that: "It is a fit case for the commencement of trial."
Latha is one of the directors of Mediaone Global Entertainment that had taken Rs 14.90-crore loan from Bengaluru-based Ad-Bureau Advertising to finish the post-production work of Rajanikanth-Deepika Padukone starrer film 'Kochadaiiyaan', hailed as India's first motion capture animated film, directed by her younger daughter Soundarya. The amount outstanding is Rs 6.20 crore.
On February 20, the Supreme Court said if the firm — Mediaone Global Entertainment, a company in which Latha is a director — does not pay the dues to Ad-Bureau Advertising within three months, Latha would have to pay the amount as per her undertaking.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by Ad Bureau against an order passed by the High Court on March 10, 2016, quashing criminal proceedings pending before a magistrate court in Bengaluru.
