Following a court order, Former Russian tennis champion Maria Sharapova and seven-time Formula one racing world champion Michael Schumacher have been booked for cheating and criminal conspiracy in connection to a luxury housing project.
An FIR has been registered in the Gurgaon police station against 13 people by a Delhi-based homebuyer.
The FIR has been lodged under Section 34 (common intention), Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), Section 406 (criminal breach of trust) and Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC at the Badshahpur police station.
Shafali Agarwal, a resident of Chattarpur Mini Farm in New Delhi, has filed a complaint in which she has named Maria Sharapova, Michael Schumacher, and 11 others.
In her complaint, she alleged that she had booked an apartment in a project named after Sharapova. One of the towers in that project is named after Schumacher. The complainant submitted that the project was supposed to be completed by 2016 but never took off.
Shafali has accused international celebrities of being part of the fraud through their association and promotion of it.
She had filed a complaint in a court against M/S Realtech Development and Infrastructure (INDIA) Pvt. Ltd, other developers, Sharapova and Schumacher for duping her of around ₹ 80 lakh.
“We came to know about the project through advertisements and reached out to the company management after pictures of the project and a lot of false promises were made,” the complainant said.
She added, “It was mentioned in the brochure that she is promoting the project, and she also made false promises, had dinner parties with the buyers, and all this was done for the project, which never took off.”
