Contrary to her claim and use of social media trolls to attack Moneylife's managing editor, the very same economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police that she quoted has confirmed to multiple media outlets that actress Preity Zinta had, indeed, defaulted on a loan repayment to the beleaguered New India Cooperative Bank Ltd. The Bollywood actor, who jointly owns a stake in the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Punjab Kings, had apparently taken an Rs18 crore loan which was then settled with a haircut of Rs1.55 crore, according to reports from several newspapers and wire services.
An official from EOW told
Times of India (ToI) that a loan of Rs18 crore was sanctioned to Ms Zinta on 7 January 2011. "The loan was declared as NPA on 31 March 2013, and the loan amount was settled for Rs10.74 crore and a remission of Rs1.55 crore was given to her. The amount was paid on 5 April 2014."
Live Mint reports that "She had mortgaged her properties to the Bank, which included a flat in Mumbai and a property in Shimla, collectively worth Rs27.41 crore. In November 2012, she had to repay Rs11.40 crore to the Bank."
On 21 February 2025,
Moneylife wrote an article based on a report by Indian Cooperatives, which is considered a reliable voice for cooperatives. According to the report, on 29 January 2020, former employees of New India Cooperative Bank sent a letter to the executive director (ED) of RBI's department of regulations. The letter highlighted severe irregularities, financial mismanagement, corruption and unethical practices within the Bank under the leadership of chairman Hiren Bhanu. (
Read: New India Cooperative Bank Scam: How Did a Rs122 Crore Fraud Escape RBI Scrutiny?)
For some reason, Indiancooperatives.com had removed its original article on 25th February, even as Ms Zinta launched a full-scale defence on social media. The
web archive link of the article is available and we updated our story, accordingly.
The whistle-blower letter said, "Bollywood actress Preity Zinta's Rs18 crore loan was written off without due recovery procedures" as part of a series of allegations against the management, which have all been actively pursued by the EOW Mumbai, leading to several arrests.
In response to the article, Ms Zinta's PR team sent us an unsigned, three-line message that was ostensibly from her lawyers which is reproduced below.
Immediately thereafter, Ms Zinta and her social media team launched an attack against Moneylife's managing editor, Sucheta Dalal. In her post on X on 25 February 2025, the Bollywood actor stated, "If you don't value my reputation then sorry I dont value yours Sucheta Dalal. Next time pls call me and find out if the story is true or not before mentioning my name..."
If EOW-based news reports are correct, it is clear that Ms Zinta's declaration about an over-draft facility being paid in full is either untrue or has failed to disclose the Rs18 crore loan, the default and settlement with a remission of Rs1.5 crore.
Instead, on 27 February 2025, Ms Zinta resorted to another trolling stunt, citing a report from mid-day.
In a post on X, she said, "A lot of people wanted proof about a Fake news story peddled as news by @suchetadalal. Here it is?? Now should the press council of India @PressCouncil_IN take note of such journalists & what should her punishment be? Also I need an apology from everyone that carried this story without any varification for irreparably damaging my reputation & mentally torturing me! After all journalism should be about integrity & accountability & not an excuse for laziness & harassment. I rest my case."
The
mid-day report quoted police officials as actually stating that Ms Zinta was not under investigation in connection with the missing Rs122 crore (from New India Cooperative Bank). That report also did not refer to her specific loan, but she chose to treat it as a clean chit and use it for a social media campaign.
The mid-day editor, Sachin Kalbag told us that the paper is also following up on the report.
Ms Zinta's PR team, which has been actively involved in the social media smear campaign against Moneylife has yet to respond to our queries after asking us to put our queries in writing.
Are you saying that she took a loan of 18cr. & Which was settled for 10.74cr.? Was it then beneficial overall?