Delhi HC hears allegations of digital forgery in ₹30,000 cr Sunjay Kapur will dispute

The petition was filed by Samaira and Kiaan Kapur, Sunjay’s children with actor Karisma Kapoor, his second wife, who allege that their father’s ₹30,000-crore estate was wrongfully diverted to his third wife, Priya Kapur, through a “manufactured” and digitally altered will.

The disputed document, dated March 21, 2025, names Priya Kapur as the primary beneficiary and Shradha Suri Marwah as the executor. It also includes Sunjay’s mother, Rani Kapur, and Priya’s son as respondents.

Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani told the court that metadata analysis revealed the will was created and edited on a computer belonging to one Nitin Sharma, who had no formal connection with Sunjay Kapur.

“The will was not the product of the deceased’s hand or mind. The file was created and altered on Sharma’s system on March 17, 2025- when Sunjay was in Goa with his son. It defies logic that he would rewrite his will while on holiday, disinheriting his own children,” Jethmalani said.

According to the petitioners, the file was converted into PDF form on March 24 at 10:06 a.m., just before being circulated in a WhatsApp group named ‘Family Office IC’, allegedly created the same day.

Members of this group included Sharma, Priya Kapur, and Dinesh Agarwal of Aureus Investment Pvt Ltd, part of the Sona BLW promoter group.

Jethmalani said two separate wills, one each for Sunjay and Priya, were being drafted simultaneously. “They were not mutual wills,” he told the bench, calling the process “highly suspicious.”

He further claimed that “WhatsApp documents were a fabrication,” adding, “No lawyer drafted the will. A layman witness was taken. Every circumstance which could be suspicious is present.”

Digital footprints and missing links

The petition alleges multiple unidentified edits before and after Sunjay Kapur’s death, suggesting a “coordinated effort” to manipulate the document.

The will, Jethmalani said, only surfaced 13 days after the cremation, with no clarity on where it was stored or who had custody.

“The entire chain of custody is broken,” he submitted.

According to the petitioners, the will contains several inconsistencies, including incorrect bank account details, missing properties such as Kapur’s New York apartment and holdings in a 2010 family trust, and spelling errors in the names of family members, including five variations of his youngest son Azarias’ name.

“These are not clerical errors,” Jethmalani said. “A Harvard-educated industrialist of Sunjay Kapur’s precision could not have drafted a document this casual.”

He also highlighted the absence of a schedule of assets, a standard annexure detailing the testator’s holdings, something the court called “a serious procedural lapse.”

Jethmalani described Sunjay Kapur as “a devoted father and a perfectionist,” citing his education at the University of Buckingham and Harvard Business School.

“He never missed Kiaan’s birthdays,” he said. “The idea that such a man would exclude his children is beyond belief.”

Concluding his arguments, he told the bench, “This will should be cast into the dustbin of history. It bears no mark of the deceased’s hand or heart.”

Court’s response

The bench observed that the evidence raised “substantial questions” about the document’s authenticity and coherence.

The hearing was adjourned until Tuesday for further examination of the digital trail and chain of custody.

Counsel for Priya Kapur, however, denied any wrongdoing, asserting that “unimpeachable electronic evidence” supports the will’s validity.