Salman Khan to appear in court after businessman files Rs3 crore Being Human complaint

Dubai: A district court in Chandigarh has directed Salman Khan, his sister Alvira Khan Agnihotri and the directors of the company licensed to sell Being Human jewellery to appear before it on 5 October.

The order relates to a complaint by a Chandigarh businessman about a showroom he opened eight years ago. This is a criminal complaint rather than a civil claim, and none of the allegations has been tested in court.

Arun Gupta says he invested close to Rs 3 crore in setting up a Being Human jewellery outlet in Manimajra, after signing an agreement with the company authorised to sell the brand's jewellery. Roughly Rs 1 crore of that, he says, went into the store itself, reported by NDTV.

His case is that the support he was promised never materialised. He alleges the promotion he had been assured of did not happen, that jewellery supply to the store was disrupted, and that the resulting losses ran into crores.

One detail has followed the case since it first surfaced. Gupta says he was told Salman Khan would inaugurate the showroom personally. The actor's brother-in-law Aayush Sharma attended instead.

In his original complaint, Gupta also said the office he was meant to collect stock from had been shut since February 2020, and that he had met Salman once at a meet-and-greet, received assurances, and heard nothing further despite writing to him.

The dispute first became public in July 2021, when Chandigarh Police summoned Salman, Alvira and six others, including the Being Human Foundation's chief executive and officials of the jewellery licensee, for questioning.

The police asked them to attend on 13 July that year. The then superintendent of police, Ketan Bansal, said at the time that they had been given until that date to respond, and that action would follow if anything criminal emerged.

Five years on, the matter has moved from a police inquiry to a court summons.

The Being Human foundation issued a detailed rebuttal in 2021, and it remains the fullest response on record.

Its statement said the matter stood between the licensee company and another party alone, and that neither the foundation, Salman Khan, Alvira Khan nor any representative of the foundation was party to the memorandum of understanding in question.

It went further on the actor's own position. "Salman Khan is only the owner of the Brand Being Human and not even a trustee of the Being Human Foundation," the statement read.

It also asked media outlets to verify facts with the relevant authorities before publishing, and said it would not comment further while the matter was before the courts.

Neither Salman Khan nor Alvira Khan Agnihotri has commented on this week's summons.

The distinction the foundation drew in 2021 matters for understanding the case.

Being Human is the charitable foundation Salman Khan set up in 2007, funded partly through a clothing and accessories line that carries the name. The jewellery arm operates under licence, which is the arrangement at the centre of this dispute.

Alvira Khan Agnihotri, the actor's elder sister, has long been involved in the family's business and film ventures, and is married to the director Atul Agnihotri.

All named parties have been directed to appear on 5 October. Until then the allegations remain untested, and the actor's side has consistently maintained that he and his sister are not parties to the agreement the complaint concerns.