'Priya A Banker. If She Forged...': Bollywood-Style Drama Over Sunjay Kapur Will

A son's name misspelt. A daughter's address entered incorrectly. And an erroneously applied pronoun. These seemingly inconsequential points have underpinned days of arguments in a Bollywood-esque family drama and courtroom scrap over the Rs 30,000 crore fortune of late businessman Sunjay Kapur.

In hearings so far, actor Karisma Kapoor's children told the Delhi High Court Kapur's will - in which he leaves his estate to his third wife, Priya Sachdev Kapur - was forged.

Samaira and Kiaan, Kapur's son and daughter with Karisma, his second wife, pointed to 'discrepancies' in the contested will that, senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani reasoned, would have been spotted and rectified had the document, in fact, been made with Kapur's approval.

On Wednesday Priya Kapur's camp began its arguments. And senior advocate Rajiv Nayar immediately dismissed claims that a misspelt name meant the will had been forged. He reasoned a forged will would not contain 'so many mistakes', and that no one had actually disputed the signature.

'She is a banker!'

"Priya Kapur is not a housewife. She is a banker. If she forged the will, would there be such mistakes? Saying 'wrong spelling', 'wrong address', 'pronoun is 'she''... can this be grounds to challenge a will?" Nayar asked the court. "This complaint is bereft of any cause of action."

Sunjay Kapur with Priya and their son, Azarias, whose name was misspelt in the will (File).

There is precedent, he said, to show spelling mistakes in a will are irrelevant.

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"In my experience... the only grounds to challenge a will is if the deceased was not in 'sound mind', was coerced in some manner, or there is some inability to execute the will."

'Will show you why he disinherited...'

Nayar also responded sharply to the plea Kapur could not have disinherited his kids.

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"All they (the plaintiffs) keep saying is, 'Sunjay would not have done it' ... 'he was on a holiday' ... 'he could not disinherit his children'. But I will show you why he disinherited Karisma's kids."

Actor Karisma Kapoor and businessman Sunjay Kapur (File).

"It is because he provided sufficiently for them under the trust. When they accepted shares from the trust, they did not shed a tear for Rani Kapur (Sunjay Kapur's mother, who has also accused Priya Kapur of trying to seize complete control of the fortune)," he said.

"But now they say Rani Kapur is left without a roof over her head."

'Wife vs wife'?

The arguments also included the mothers on each side.

Nayar also declared the challenge a 'wife vs wife' spat in which 'obviously, the present wife will be given preference'. But that argument was knocked back. "Ex-wife (i.e., Karisma Kapoor) is not seeking anything... It is the children. Let's just stick to this case," Justice Jyoti Singh said.

A narrative, Nayar continued, is being built, which claims 'everything was okay between Sunjay and Karisma... but, if that was the case, would there be another wife?'

To this, again, the court re-directed the senior advocate to the case in question.

READ | In Sunjay Kapur Estate Battle, A "Cinderella" Swipe At His Wife

Last week too there was a dramatic showdown in court after Priya Kapur was compared to Cinderella's stepmother. In a no-holds attack, Jethmalani accused her of being 'greedy'.

Sunjay Kapur died in the UK in June while playing polo.

In August - after weeks of speculation that included whispers that he was 'murdered as part of a transnational conspiracy' - British medical authorities confirmed he died of natural causes, and listed left ventricular hypertrophy and ischemic heart disease as the causes of death.

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