A Pune nightspot opened last year by Priyanka Chopra's brother, Siddharth, had been embroiled in a bitter dispute with a partner restaurant over space and licence. This had forced both the businesses to close down temporarily last November.
Now, it has emerged that Siddharth's The Mugshot Lounge has lifted shutters and its partnership with one Sheetal Samat withdrawn. The deal was that Samat's company would run out of the same space and in return, pay a certain sum to the Chopras every month. However, it reportedly defaulted on payment of Rs 15 lakh between June and October 2014.
Further, Samat's restaurant - Sheetal Samudra - was allegedly running with the same licence granted to The Mugshot Lounge. When excise officials got wind of it, they initiated action. This led to mutual mud slinging, slapping legal notices on one another, and downing shutters eventually.
Siddharth says, "My lounge has re-opened. I am taking care of it; Sheetal is not a part of it. I am not sure if they have made the payment. We followed everything that was in the agreement, but they didn't. So, we decided to move forward."
