First it was Amisha Patel who slapped a legal notice on her father, Amit Patel, for swindling her.

Now, a long time family friend of the Patels is also following the same path. Paresh Khandwal, CEO of Khandwal Securities Pvt Ltd, has filed a lawsuit against Amit Patel for failing to pay back an amount adding up to Rs 3.5 crore.

Giving details about why he’s taken recourse to the law, Khandwal says, “Amit Patel owes my company a huge amount of money and has failed to pay back.

In 2004, he asked me to deposit a cheque worth Rs 90 lakh when he failed to pay me back. But when I did that, the cheque bounced. Amit owes me Rs 3.5 crore, but is absconding at the moment. The last time I spoke to him was over a year ago. Since then, I’ve cut off all ties with him.”



Strained ties

A family friend of the Patels, Khandwal says he will let the law take its course now. “I have known the Patel family since 1975, so it’s sad to see our relations straining. But I had no choice other than to file a case against him. In fact, over the years I have realised that he’s been swindling a lot of money from other sources as well.”

Mismanagement

In 2004, Amisha accused her parents, Amit and Asha Patel, of mismanaging her assets.

So this development is like a vindication for the actress about her parents’ sordid actions. A close friend of Amisha says, “When Amisha left her parents’ home, she didn’t have a single penny in her hand. They took everything away from her. Amisha’s grandmother was her only support.

Her father blamed director Vikram Bhatt (Amisha’s beau) for instigating his daughter against him, but the fact is that he duped her of all her hard-earned money.”

When Amisha exposed her father’s deeds to the world, no one believed her. “She suffered a lot, and everyone looked at her as the ungrateful daughter for walking out on her parents. However, with this development she hopes that people will realise that she wasn’t at fault.”

Despite repeated attempts, Amit Patel remained unreachable for comment.