A Court in India has just ordered the police to establish an Initial Investigation Report (FIR) around a high-rise construction project related to… Maria Sharapova, but until now it has not started.
The Chief Justice of the Northwest District Court of Delhi ordered the police to conduct an investigation after a lawsuit was filed by Bhawana Agarwal, a customer of the house project named after Sharapova – “Ballet Sharapova”, who invested quite a large amount of money up to 5 million 300 thousand rupees (about 4.7 billion rubles) but up to now still no results have been achieved.

According to Ms. Agarwal (44 years old this year), in 2013, she invested money in a luxury apartment project with a high-rise building planned to be built in Gurgaon. According to the sales contract between the two parties at that time, this building will be completed in 3 years, after customers pay enough investment money. However, that did not happen, and Ms. Agarwal later learned that this project had not even received… a construction permit.

This luxury apartment project, although promoted under Sharapova’s name, is actually a cooperation between Resettlement Infrastructure Development Company Limited, Infrastructure Maintenance Company Limited Resettlement and Private Housing Company Arab Resettlement, Sharapova is just a small partnership used as a brand to attract other retail investors, and customers.

Sharapova signed a contract to name the development brand for this project and according to some sources, the beautiful Russian female tennis player received several million dollars from this deal. Even in 2012, the blonde beauty flew to India to participate in the promotion of the project.

Sharapova’s recent ban from competition has also had a significant impact on the project, although according to the project’s representative, this will not affect the cooperation of the two sides. As for Ms. Agarwal, she admitted that the appearance of Sharapova’s name in the project was the main factor that made her feel interested and decide to invest money. She was also attracted by part of the project plan, related to Sharapova, which is to build a tennis academy, commercial areas selling clothing and sports equipment located in this high-end residential area.

According to investors, this high-end residential project is a 42-storey building, but only 120 apartments are built and designed extremely luxuriously, located on 3 floors. The apartments are advertised as having “Fantastic frontage and balcony views”. The remaining empty areas will be used to build modern sports and arts infrastructure, such as the Russian Ballet Academy (this idea was proposed by Masha herself and described by the investors). described as “sophisticated and versatile”), Tennis Academy.

In addition, the building also has entertainment venues whose names are all related to tennis, such as “Game Point” Restaurant, “Mixed Pair” Sports Bar or a Club. 3-story “Grand Slam” dance.

As for the Tennis Academy, to increase its “grandeur”, Sharapova has promised to visit regularly in the future, and buyers of the high-end residential project “Ballet Sharapova” will have the opportunity to practice. Practice with her every time she comes to India. The story about this Academy is only now starting to cause controversy, when people quote Sharapova’s comment: “Personally, I like the roof of this stadium, because it is unique.” That is probably, if anything, just a roof on the design drawings.

In the petition sent to the Court and to the police, Ms. Agarwal made a very drastic allegation: “Sharapova is not only a strong advertisement for fraudulent activities but also supports the project under the eyes of the public. Therefore, her actions were also part of a criminal conspiracy.” Ms. Agarwal also said that Sharapova met the project’s customers at one point in 2013…

After receiving Ms. Agarwal’s complaint, the Northwest District Court of Delhi realized the serious nature of the case, so it asked the police to establish an FIR to conduct an investigation. In the Indian legal system, this is the initial step for them to receive information and conduct an investigation of a crime.

According to a Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of India, “It seems that the Russian tennis star lent her name to the project, even agreeing to build an Academy in her name. This could not have been done without her signed written consent through a proposal full of money, but at this point, it has turned into a fraud investigation.”

Currently, Sharapova’s side has not yet responded to this investigation and it is still unclear whether she is involved or not, and if so, how.