Mumbai: Bombay High Court has ordered release of Rs 20 lakh from the custody of a trial court to filmmaker Rakesh Roshan, a complainant in a cheating case lodged in 2011.

A single judge bench of Justice M S Karnik ordered the special CBI court to release the amount which was part of Rs 50 lakh lost by Roshan to two men who posed as officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2011 for settling a case pending against him. Roshan lodged a complaint with the CBI alleging he was defrauded and it led to the arrest of the two accused and the seizure of gold and cash. The amount was kept in court custody as part of evidence.

In 2012, on Roshan’s plea, the trial court allowed him to withdraw 30 lakh on an indemnity and to w ait for the remaining amount for trial to end. The filmmaker had in 2020, approached the trial court again for the remaining amount since the trial was still pending.

The trial court rejected his plea on Dec 14, 2021 after the CBI strongly opposed it. The HC noted that the trial court recently convicted the second of the two accused Ashwini Sharma in the cheating, extortion and impersonation case. He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. In 2022 another accused, Rajesh Rajan, was also sentenced to 3 years’. The HC thus ordered the release of Rs 20 lakh now.