Bombay High Court Asks Mumbai Police Not To File Chargesheet Against Kannada Actor Dhruva Sarja In Cheating Case

In a temporary respite for popular Kannada actor Dhruva Sarja alias Dhruva Kumar, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday ordered the Mumbai Police not to file chargesheet in a criminal case lodged against him by filmmaker Raghavendra Hegde for allegedly duping him of Rs 9 crore.

A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad passed an order directing the Mumbai Police not to proceed with filing the chargesheet in the case without the leave of the court.

Sarja faces a First Information Report (FIR) at the behest of Hegde, who has alleged that the Kannada actor had approached him requesting for a collaboration to which the filmmaker agreed and initially paid Rs 3 crore to the actor. Further Hegde claimed to have taken loans from various entities at higher interests from 2020 till lodging of the FIR, taking the total amount to Rs 43 crores.

After such a huge expenditure, Hegde alleged that Sarja withdrew from the film and thus has cheated him. He therefore, lodged an FIR with the Amboli Police Station in Mumbai under various charges of fraud, cheating etc.

Aggrieved by the FIR, Sarja petitioned the High Court seeking to quash the said criminal case against him, arguing that he never withdrew from the agreement to work on a film and claimed that Hegde failed to provide or come up with any workable scripts for him to work on.

This plea was heard by a division bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Rajesh Patil, wherein Sarja did not dispute the fact that he received Rs 3 crore from Hegde after they both signed an agreement for a film in 2019.

However, the bench had adjourned the hearing in the matter, with a directive to Sarja to show his bonafides and deposit the amount of Rs 3 crore, paid to him by Hegde.

Further, Sarja contended that Hegde initially sent a script in 2023 but later withdrew the same and then sent another story in 2024 and somewhere in July 2025, he messaged Sarja to speak to one of his investors assuring the said entity that he would be collaborating with the complainant.

Subsequently, on July 15, 2025, Hegde lodged a complaint with the Amboli Police, which was later converted into an FIR.

Notably, Hedge has also alleged that Sarja stopped responding to calls or messages and therefore he was compelled to lodge a case against the actor.

Countering this, Sarja has argued that he never refused to work with Hedge but rather suddenly, an FIR came to be lodged.

As regards depositing the amount, as asked by the court, Sarja maintained that he cannot do so.

Appearance:

For Petitioners: Adv Ashima Mandla, Mandakini Singh, Mohd. Faiz, Aryan Kotwal Advocates

For Complainant: Sr Adv Sanjeev Kadam