Pune farmer moves court against Sonali Bendre, husband Goldie Behl alleges land grab

MUMBAI: A farmer from Pune district has filed a civil lawsuit against Bollywood actor Sonali Bendre and her filmmaker husband Goldie Behl, accusing them of encroaching on their land and indulging in "mafia-style" intimidation.

Bendre, however, denied the allegation, saying it was an attempt to extort money as her name was not mentioned on any of the land purchase documents.

The complainants - Chandrakant Balu Shinde (50) and his mother Kamalbai (75) - claim that the celebrity couple was using their social influence and taking help of the local police to forcibly take possession of their 30 'guntha' (over 32,000 square feet) of land in Uksan village in Maval taluka of the district.

The suit was filed against the celebrity couple and two others through advocate Vanraj Shinde last month before a civil court at Vadgaon Maval. The matter will next be heard on April 24.

As per the suit, the Shinde family has been cultivating the land as "protected tenants" since the 1940s.

The family alleged that their names were illegally removed from revenue records in the 1980s without a notice.

The dispute began when the original owners allegedly sold the land to a local individual in 2012, who subsequently sold a portion of it to Goldie Behl in March 2021.

The aggrieved mother-son duo claimed these sales were "illegal and void" because their pre-existing tenancy rights were never legally terminated.

The plaintiffs have also made claims of intimidation and police bias.

The Shinde family alleged that on December 14, 2025, Sonali Bendre and Goldie Behl arrived at the site with workers and heavy machinery to begin unauthorised construction.

When Kamalbai tried to stop the work, she was allegedly met with threats. The police officers at the site also threatened to frame the mother-son duo in false theft cases if they continued to "harass" the celebrity couple, the lawsuit claimed.

Bendre, however, said her name is not there on any documents related to the Maval land purchase.

This is a false case orchestrated solely to extort money, her lawyer Raju Shinde said.