The Delhi High Court has issued notice to Priya Kapur regarding the seizure of Sunjay Kapur’s mobile phone in the ongoing family property and will dispute. The court is examining claims linked to digital records of the alleged will and has fixed the matter for further hearing on February 26.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to Priya Kapur in the ongoing Kapoor vs Kapoor property dispute linked to the contested Will of late industrialist Sunjay Kapur, whose business empire is estimated to be worth over Rs 30,000 crore.
The notice relates to applications seeking seizure and preservation of mobile phones and electronic devices belonging to Priya Kapur and other individuals connected with the preparation, custody, and circulation of the alleged Will.
The court is also considering whether call detail records (CDRs) of Sunjay Kapur and Priya Kapur should be examined as part of the inquiry into the Will’s authenticity.
In a related development, the Joint Registrar (Judicial) of the High Court issued notices on fresh petitions filed by Samaira Kapur and Kiaan Kapur, the children of Sunjay Kapur from his second marriage with actor Karisma Kapoor.
The children sought urgent directions to preserve their father’s call data records, stating that telecom companies retain such records only for one year and that vital evidence could be lost if immediate action is not taken.
Priya Kapur’s counsel opposed reliance on call records, arguing that the CDRs relied upon by the petitioners have already been deleted and are therefore unreliable and fake. The High Court directed Priya Kapur to file her reply within two weeks and fixed February 26 as the next date of hearing.
Appearing for the children, Advocate Shantanu Agarwal questioned the resistance to investigation and asked,
“if the will was so authentic then why were they opposing its investigation?”
The court also fixed February 26 for forensic examination of the disputed Will, noting that Sunjay Kapur’s mother, Rani Kapur, has filed a similar application seeking forensic examination of the alleged Will. The High Court has also issued notice on a fresh petition seeking forensic examination of Rani Kapur’s own Will.
Earlier, the matter saw a significant development when Justice Vikas Mahajan recused himself from hearing a petition filed by 80-year-old Rani Kapur. In her plea, Rani Kapur has accused Priya Kapur and Karisma Kapoor’s children of illegally forming a family trust through which Sunjay Kapur’s properties are being managed.
She has sought a declaration that the trust is invalid, alleging it was created without her knowledge or consent and was used to unlawfully take control of her son’s assets and inheritance.
Rani Kapur has stated that she became aware of the alleged fraud only after her son’s death, when she discovered that major property-related decisions had been taken without her involvement and that Sunjay Kapur’s assets had been placed under the family trust.
The notice follows applications filed by Samaira and Kiaan Kapur seeking production and preservation of all electronic devices referred to in the alleged Will, including those of its witnesses and named executor. They have also sought CDRs of both Priya Kapur and the deceased for the period preceding the Will’s alleged execution in March last year.
Priya Kapur has claimed that the Will makes her the sole beneficiary of Sunjay Kapur’s personal assets, which are closely linked to control of the Sona Group. This claim has been strongly contested by the children, who argue that the document does not align with their father’s conduct and communications with them in the final months of his life.
The children have relied on WhatsApp chats and call records to show continued care and involvement by their father, evidence they say is inconsistent with a Will that completely excludes them. They have offered to submit their own mobile devices for verification and have alleged that Priya Kapur remains in possession of Sunjay Kapur’s phone, an issue now under judicial consideration.
The court has also noted gaps in the chain of custody of the Will. While Priya Kapur and the executor have stated that drafts were prepared electronically and circulated by email, the petitioners argue there is no clear explanation of how the original hard copy came into the possession of one of the witnesses.
During proceedings before Joint Registrar (Judicial) Gagandeep Jindal, the court highlighted the urgency of securing CDRs, observing that telecom records are retained only for one year. The records are expected to verify Priya Kapur’s claim that she was present in Gurugram on the date of the Will’s alleged execution, a fact now in dispute.
When objections were again raised to forensic examination of the Will, the registrar remarked,
“I don’t understand resistance to inspection of the Will,”
indicating the court’s inclination toward deeper evidentiary scrutiny.
The High Court has directed Priya Kapur to respond to all notices and fixed February 26 for further hearing, a date that is likely to be crucial in the high-stakes inheritance battle.
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