Chef Santosh Shah Released After Paying Rs 450,000 to Victim

Celebrity chef Santosh Shah has been released after paying Rs 450,000 to the victim in a fraud case.

Police said Shah was released on Monday evening after settling the amount specified in the cheque with the complainant.

Shah had been arrested in Janakpur last Friday night by a team from the Kathmandu Valley Crime Investigation Office and brought to Kathmandu for detention.

He was accused of issuing a cheque from an account with insufficient funds to Shakuntala Adhikari Thapa while purchasing a restaurant in Gairidhara, Kathmandu. Based on that allegation, Thapa had filed a cheque bounce case involving Rs 2.5 million.

In the case, the court found Shah guilty and ordered him to pay the Rs 2.5 million principal amount. In May last year, the Kathmandu District Court also sentenced him to one month in prison and imposed a fine of Rs 125,000.

However, Shah was not present when the court delivered its verdict and imposed the sentence. The victim later filed another complaint with police, alleging that he had defrauded her of an additional Rs 450,000.