Death of Prince William's businessman pal who 'collapsed after swallowing a bee' sparks a £3billion inheritance row
Sunjay Kapur, 53, collapsed in front of horrified teammates during the game at Guards Polo Club in Windsor.
Indian-born Mr Kapur was thought to have suffered a fatal heart attack after being stung in the mouth, potentially triggering anaphylactic shock.
Kapur was the heir too the global car parts giant Sona Comstar, a £2.7 billion business founded by his father.
Now the company has been plunged into a bitter succession battle, between the businessman's mother Rani Kapur and the firm's board of directors, The Telegraph reported.
Rani Kapur reportedly wrote to the board on July 24 saying her son had died in 'suspicious and unexplained circumstances'.
It came just a month after the board unanimously appointed a new chairman on June 23.
In the letter, she reportedly accused people in the company of exploiting the family's grief to 'wrestle control' of the company.
She said she had been forced to sign documents behind locked doors while under emotional distress.
Mrs Kapur claimed she had been blocked from accessing her bank accounts and did not authorise appointments to represent her family.
In her letter, which was also sent to India's market regulator, she claimed her late husband, who died in 2015, made her the sole beneficiary of his estate as well as majority shareholder of the Sona Group.
The company said Mrs Kapur had not been a shareholder for six years and said she was not majority shareholder of the group.
Sunjay Kapur's widow Priya Sachdeva also appears to have sided with Sona Comstar.
Ms Sachdeva was appointed as a non-executive director at the company's annual meeting on July 25, despite Ms Kapur's objections and request to delay the meeting.
Her office last week shared the coroner's report which confirmed that her husband had died of natural causes.
The report said he died from ventricular hypertrophy and ischaemic heart disease and the investigation was closed.
Ms Kapur wrote to the UK authorities calling for an investigation into his death, which was rejected.
Mr Kapur's sister Mandhire Kapur has also been dragged into the dispute.
In an Instagram post, she shared a photograph with her brother and mother saying she would 'protect what you would have wanted, and what Dad dreamed'
Mrs Kapur claimed there was a conspiracy to take control of the company away from her family.
Vaibhav Gaggar the senior advocate who represents Ms Kapur, told The Telegraph: 'It quite clearly reinforces what she's been saying, that her entire legacy is being usurped and no one is willing to look into the cause of death.'
'It may all be very well interlinked and she has quite unequivocally said there is a conspiracy behind her son's death.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
6 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Jeremy Clarkson launches new version of UK favourite product only available to customers of his pub
DIDDLY SQUIRT Jeremy Clarkson launches new version of UK favourite product only available to customers of his pub Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) JEREMY Clarkson is to finally offer tomato ketchup to punters at his The Farmer's Dog boozer after a UK firm produced an all-British one. TV star Jezza, 65, will also flog bottles of the condiment at his Diddly Squat farm as it meets his UK-only ingredients condition. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 2 Jeremy Clarkson is to finally offer tomato ketchup to punters at his boozer after a UK firm produced an all-British one An Isle of Wight company took on the challenge after the subject arose on Clarkson's Farm. It came after thousands of requests for ketchup at Jezza's pub in Burford, Oxon, saw staff put up a sign urging diners not to bother asking for it. The firm, Condimaniac, uses Isle of Wight tomato passata, apple cider vinegar from Hants, Essex salt and British sugar and onions. Boss Kier Kemp said: 'Making a 100 per cent British ketchup after Jeremy Clarkson alerted us to the fact there wasn't one was very hard. "We had to put on our big boy pants.' The firm made 1,700 bottles for its first order to be sold at the pub's one-stop butcher and bottle shop and at Clarkson's farm in Chipping Norton. The firm's own supplies of the £7.95 red sauce have sold out. A source close to Clarkson's pub said: 'Jeremy and the team support the British food and farming industry. 'So he made no apologies for not selling ketchup, no matter how many times staff had to let customers down. 'But the pub's always said that if a British company could do it with all-British ingredients, it would get on the menu. Clarkson's Farm star Harriet Cowan admits she is 'not making any money from farming' despite show appearance 'Hopefully it'll be a success.'
Telegraph
7 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The police must work harder to regain public trust
At times, it feels as if the British state is more concerned with the welfare of shoplifters than shopkeepers. It is perhaps unsurprising, given the row over the epithet 'scumbags' and the Information Commissioner's Office warning that showing pictures of thieves may breach data protection laws, that owners feel the police have 'abandoned' treating shoplifting as a crime. This sense will not be helped by police chiefs appealing to the public to do their jobs for them. Matthew Barber, Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, insists that 'there's a bigger problem with society' and that those unwilling to 'try and stop' thieves are themselves 'part of the problem'. This stance sits poorly next to the treatment meted out by the criminal justice system to those who do attempt to intervene. Public-spirited citizens who intervene and attempt to detain thieves and worse can find themselves raked through the coals, with the state using the tools at its disposal to emphasise that enforcing the law – or choosing not to – is a matter of its discretion, not yours. This has rendered the population powerless to protect itself, while the police refuse to protect us. People do respond to incentives and the incentives this offers are straightforward. As a result, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed last month that shoplifting offences were at their highest since current figures began in 2003. Correcting this sorry state of affairs does not begin with more members of the public putting themselves at physical risk. It begins with the police doing the work we pay them to do.
Telegraph
7 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Families face fresh inheritance tax grab
Parents may be prevented from making unlimited tax-free gifts to their children under a proposed tightening of inheritance tax rules. The Treasury is considering a lifetime cap on the value of gifts that someone can pass on before they die in order to reduce their eventual inheritance tax bill. The Chancellor is also thought to be considering potential changes to capital gains tax in another attempt to target wealth. It comes as Rachel Reeves battles a black hole of up to £50bn in this autumn's Budget. Sir Mel Stride, the Conservative shadow chancellor, said: 'Those who have worked hard, saved and want to pass something on to their loved ones shouldn't be punished by yet more taxes from Labour. 'Tax rises are coming to paper over the cracks of the Chancellor's economic mismanagement. Nothing is safe under Labour: not your job, your business, your farm, your savings or your pension. 'Rachel Reeves is taxing your family's future to fund her failure.' At present, unlimited amounts of money and assets can be gifted to friends and relatives without paying any eventual inheritance tax, as long as the transfer happens at least seven years before the person giving the gift dies. A so-called taper tax rate of between 8 and 32 per cent is applied to gifts given between seven and three years before death. Money given less than three years before is taxed at the full inheritance tax rate of 40 per cent. A lifetime cap on gifts would allow the Treasury to raid funds given from parents to children many years earlier, in an effort to boost the tax take. Changes to the taper rate are also being considered, according to the Guardian, which first reported the story. A source told the newspaper: 'With so much wealth stored in assets like houses that have shot up in value, we have to find ways to better tap into the inheritances of those who can afford to contribute more.' Ms Reeves is also said to be examining an increase in the capital gains tax rate, following an initial raid last year. This is likely to be accompanied by an allowance for people who invest in British businesses. The amount of money raised from inheritance tax has more than doubled to £7.5bn a year over the past decade, fuelled in part by a long boom in property prices. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects it to hit £14.3bn by 2030. Labour has already taken action against farmers and business owners by ending exemptions for their property when they die – the latest in a series of moves to expand the duty, which also included a raid by Gordon Brown on trusts in 2006. By contrast, the Tories have long sought to cut the tax. David Cameron vowed to raise the thresholds at which it would apply while in opposition, and as chancellor George Osborne exempted homes worth up to £1m. During the last general election campaign, Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, told The Telegraph that he would like to scrap the tax entirely. Treasury figures have consistently warned that hard decisions on tax changes are likely to come in the weeks running up to the Budget, when economic forecasts are clearer. A string of Left-leaning think tanks, trade unions and Labour MPs are likely to push proposals for tax rises in meetings with Treasury officials and ministers. Reeves 'laying groundwork for tax rises' Number 11 is plotting a series of interventions between now and Budget day, laying the groundwork for tax rises to prepare the public and the markets for what is coming. On current economic forecasts, Ms Reeves needs to raise tens of billions of pounds a year to hit her so-called 'fiscal rules' for controlling debt. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a think tank, put the figure at £40bn a year. Restoring her existing fiscal headroom would need another £10bn. Other think tanks have suggested lower figures and Treasury sources stress the forecasts could yet change. There is, however, a growing expectation of major tax rises in some form. Labour has promised not to increase income tax, National Insurance on workers, VAT and the rate of corporation tax, as well as a looser pledge of no tax rises for 'working people'. It means that higher taxes on wealth are being explored. Ms Reeves has long been opposed to a new standalone wealth tax. She ruled out the move in The Telegraph in April. However, in opposition, Ms Reeves advocated increases in capital gains tax rates and since taking office has tightened rules on wealthy 'non-doms' who spend time in the UK but are based abroad. A Treasury spokesman said: 'The best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy – which is our focus. Changes to tax and spend policy are not the only ways of doing this, as seen with our planning reforms, which are expected to grow the economy by £6.8bn and cut borrowing by £3.4bn. 'We are committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible, which is why at last autumn's Budget, we protected working people's payslips and kept our promise not to raise the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, employee National Insurance or VAT.'
