"Nightmare We Want To Wake Up From": Sunjay Kapur's Sister On Family Feud

Mandhira Kapur, the sister of Sona Comstar Chairman Sunjay J Kapur, in strongly worded comments slammed those who are being harsh on her family at a time of loss, and vowed to stand by her 80-year-old mother in the battle to keep the family's inheritance from being taken away.

Her brother who headed the Rs 30,000 crore mobility tech company died on June 12 while playing polo in London; the autopsy report indicated the cause as a cardiac arrest.

Later, Sona Comstar sent a cease-and-desist letter to Rani Kapur, the mother of Sunjay and Mandhira Kapur. 

Rani Kapur - who said she has majority shareholder status - had alleged she was coerced into signing documents supporting the nomination of her daughter-in-law, Priya Sachdev Kapur, as a non-executive director.

"I think it's a little harsh on my mom to send her this letter saying she has nothing to do with the company she built. She's 80. How about just respecting the fact that her husband and she made this?" Mandhira Kapur told NDTV.

"They started with Sona. My dad worked with her. His father-in-law left everything. Our family moved to Delhi where we actually went for family therapy because we hated moving to Delhi. That's what we've been through. And today you're telling this 80-year-old woman who's lost everything that she has nothing to do with this company? I mean, think about it. Is that fair? This is the legacy that my father built. Today, we're being told we are not allowed to have this legacy," she said.

Priya Sachdev Kapur has asked Mandhira Kapur's mother to move in their house in Delhi. This suggestion is, however, impractical at the moment, Mandhira Kapur told NDTV.

"I think right now it's very tough for mum even to go to that house. It is one thing that she got through after dad died, and to go back there with her son gone, it is going to be very hard for her to walk into that house. She's not emotionally ready to face the fact that she has lost her son," Mandhira Kapur said.

"It's not anything personal against anyone. It's getting mum to a point of strength to be able to deal with the fact that we're dealing with a lot. We've lost everything right now. Mum's lost her entire world. I still have my husband, my children. But she has lost her only son and her husband and everything he built. She has nothing today," she added.

On the claim by Sona Comstar that Rani Kapur did not hold any shares since 2019, Mandhira Kapur said that just as the world is finding out, "we are also finding out."

"We didn't know. We had to look into this stuff. We have learned that everything was put into this so-called trust, which I don't know how. We don't know anything. We're still finding out stuff. My father left everything to my mother. My father and mother founded Sona. So to tell my mother at 80, you have nothing to do with the company she built, I think is a little absurd," she told NDTV.

Mandhira Kapur said she also got to know details of the postmortem details in bits and pieces from media reports. Earlier, it was claimed Sunjay Kapur was stung by a bee in his throat, which created complications, and later the authorities said it was a cardiac issue, she said.

"Everything has been a surprise and a shock to us. Everything we're finding out is just very upsetting. And it's like I said, we're learning everyday. We're learning a lot through the media. We're learning a lot through sources of well-wishers who are coming and telling us what is happening. So we're learning and everything has been shocking from the 12th of June. Our life has been one big shock. And, you know, it feels like a nightmare which we want to wake up from," Mandhira Kapur said.

As chairman of Sona Comstar from 2019 onward, Sunjay Kapur continued to guide the company's strategic direction and under his chairmanship, the company expanded its global footprint across India, the US, Mexico, China, and Serbia, successfully listed on BSE and NSE, and entered future mobility domains such as sensors and software through the acquisition of a majority stake in Novelic.