Bollywood actress and former Rajya Sabha MP Jayaprada gets six months in jail in employees insurance fraud case

The employees working at the theater owned by the former Rajya Sabha member said that the management has been deducting money for the insurance from their salaries but not paying it to the state insurance corporation.

Chennai: The Egmore Court in Tamil Nadu has sentenced Bollywood actress of the yore and former Rajya Sabha member Jaya Prada to six months in prison on charges of non-payment of Employees State Insurance money to employees working at a theater owned by her in Chennai, sources said. The court has sentenced three others to six months and also fined them along with the former Rajya Sabha member with Rs 5000 each.

The court verdict came on a complaint by the workers working at the theater owned by Jaya Prada. The theater is located at Rayapeta area of Tamil Nadu capital Chennai. It is learnt that the theater owned by Jaya Prada is run by Ram Kumar and Raja Babu, hailing from Chennai. Sources said that the theater has been closed for ten years now.

In their complaint, the workers complained that the management at the theater had been deducting the ESI amount but did not pay the money to the state insurance corporation. The workers said that after being denied their dues, they were compelled to knock the doors of the judiciary and approached the Egmore court with a plea.

Jaya Prada and the three employees at the Chennai theater had later filed three petitions in the Madras High Court against the case, however all three petitions were dismissed by the high court. When the case came to for hearing before the Egmore court judge, Jayaprada had offered that she would pay the amount received from the workers.

But the lawyer of the ESIC objected to this which culminated in the six months jail.