Ayesha Shroff duped of ₹58L by staffer in son Tiger’s martial arts firm

MUMBAI: Actor Tiger Shroff’s mother Ayesha Shroff was allegedly duped of ₹58.53 lakh by a kickboxer she had appointed as a staffer in her son’s firm, according to Santacruz police.

Based on Ayesha’s complaint, the police booked the accused Alan Fernandes, who allegedly diverted client fees to his personal account, and also posed as the CEO of the company to pocket unaccounted profits.

Tiger, along with Ayesha, sister Krishna and entrepreneur Pawan Bagga run MMA Matrix, a gym for Mixed Martial Arts training in Bandra since 2018 that trains its clients in various martial arts. The company also organises MMA Matrix fights in India and abroad.

According to police officials, Fernandes claims to be India’s first professional MMA player. When Fernandes met the Shroffs in 2018, he was working with the Kickboxing Association and Global Authority for Mixed Martial Arts Federation (GAMMAF) and All India Mixed Martial Arts Association (AIMMAA).

“Fernandes was hired as the director of operations of the company in 2018. Soon, he started taking up more roles like training the clients. Being more informed about the international associations, he told us that for events within India, we need to pay a fee of ₹3.5 lakh to AIMMAA and ₹7.5 lakh to GAMMAF for international events,” Shroff told the police.

Over the years, she added, crores of rupees were paid for such events by the company to get the necessary permissions.

She also stated that she asked Fernandes for the accounting of all the events organised over the years in a company meeting on April 15. “He did not give me any satisfactory answer to my queries in this meeting. So, I asked other employees of the gym for the details I needed. I found a discrepancy of ₹58,53,591 in the books which I later learnt was transferred directly to Fernandes’ account,” Ayesha said in her police complaint.

Fernandes has also levelled counter-allegations against the Shroffs. In a post on his social media accounts a couple of weeks ago, he said that he was threatened and coerced by Ayesha Shroff and her cronies into signing some documents.

“They want to frame me for fraud of ₹2 crore. Under threats to my life and of dire consequences using their political connections, they coerced me into signing the papers. I was assaulted and not allowed to contact my lawyers,” he said in the post.

Fernandes also claimed that not only had he filed a civil suit about the situation in the Bombay high court, but also filed a police complaint against Ayesha and Tiger Shroff. However, this claim could not be independently verified.