Ashhar Alam/New Delhi

Rani Kapur, widow of industrialist Dr Surinder Kapur and mother of the late Sunjay Kapur, has moved the Delhi High Court alleging that her daughter-in-law, Priya Kapur, along with other family members, orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to divert her entire estate, legacy interests and controlling stakes in key Sona Group companies.

In a detailed civil suit, the 80-plus-year-old petitioner has challenged the validity of the “RK Family Trust (Rani Kapur Family Trust)”, claiming it was illegally created through a trust deed dated October 26, 2017, by fraud, forgery and undue influence. She has sought a declaration that the trust is void, along with its dissolution, restitution of assets, rendition of accounts and permanent injunctions against the defendants from acting on or benefiting from the trust.

According to the pleadings, Rani Kapur is the sole legatee of the estate of her late husband, Dr Surinder Kapur, founder and promoter of the Sona Group, who died in June 2015. Dr Kapur had executed a Will in February 2013 bequeathing all movable and immovable assets, including his shareholding in Sona Group companies, exclusively to his wife. The Will was probated in January 2016 without objection from their children, including Sunjay Kapur.

The suit alleges that after Rani Kapur suffered a stroke in September 2017, she became physically and emotionally dependent on her son and his third wife. Taking advantage of her vulnerable medical condition, the defendants allegedly acted in concert to secretly transfer her assets into the RK Family Trust without her free or informed consent.

Kapur has stated that she had already set up two duly registered trusts in 2016, the Dr SK Family Trust and the MK Family Trust as part of a transparent estate planning process in which she remained the settlor and principal beneficiary. Contrary to this arrangement, she claims her assets were siphoned into the RK Family Trust, where she was neither a beneficiary nor retained any control.

Doubts about the trust surfaced in 2019 when she began hearing references to it. She alleges she was misled into believing it was merely another name for her earlier trusts and that she continued to exercise full ownership over her estate. It was only in 2023, during proceedings linked to an intellectual property dispute involving Sona Group entities that documents emerged suggesting her rights had been divested in favour of her son through a separate trust structure.

The suit further claims that despite repeated requests, Rani Kapur was never given a copy of the trust deed during her son’s lifetime. Following Sunjay Kapur’s sudden death in June 2025, she reportedly obtained photocopies of the deed from third parties, which she says show material discrepancies in signatures and stamps. A forensic examination cited in the plaint allegedly indicates that the initials attributed to her on the deed do not match her genuine signatures.

Under the impugned trust, the suit alleges, Sunjay Kapur was the sole lifetime beneficiary, with benefits thereafter flowing largely to Priya Kapur and her children, effectively excluding the plaintiff and her daughters. Serious allegations have also been levelled over steps taken after Sunjay Kapur’s death, including Priya Kapur allegedly securing key managerial and board positions in core Sona Group companies without informing or seeking consent from the plaintiff.

Rani Kapur has also accused the defendants of cutting off her access to company information by falsely claiming her email account was compromised and creating a fictitious email ID in her name to facilitate trust-related actions without her knowledge.

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Through the suit, Kapur has sought cancellation of all actions taken under the trust, reversal of statutory filings, restitution of assets and shareholding to their pre-trust position, and injunctions restraining the defendants from operating trust accounts, using digital signatures in her name or creating third-party rights.

Describing the episode as a calculated conspiracy founded on fraud and abuse of trust, Rani Kapur has urged the court to restore her estate and family legacy, contending that the alleged actions amount to an attempt to dispossess an elderly widow of her lifetime assets and inheritance.