Kerala High Court Extends Stay On Producer Shamnas' Cheating Case Against Actor Nivin Pauly

The Kerala High Court on Thursday (January 15) extended the interim stay granted in favour of actor Nivin Pauly and producer Abrid Shine in the cheating case initiated against them by producer P.S. Shamnas.

Shamnas has alleged that they caused him an unlawful loss of ₹1.9 crore.

When the case came up for consideration, counsel for Nivin and Abrid submitted before Justice C.S. Dias that they are not interested in settling the case through mediation. The Court had earlier referred the case for mediation but the mediation had not commenced since they did not show up.

On hearing the same, the judge orally remarked: "Mediation no compulsion. You don't go, I have no problem. Yes, you need not participate. There is no problem."

The Court then recorded the submission and extended, for two weeks, the interim stay granted against all further proceedings in the cases. The cases will be taken up for hearing on January 22.

A criminal case was registered against Nivin and Abrid under Sections 406 (Punishment for Criminal breach of Trust) and 420 (Cheating) read with Section 34 (acts done by several person in furtherance of a common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, based on a complaint by P.S. Shamnas, proprietor of Indian Movie Makers at Thalayolaprambu Police Station, Kottayam.

Shamnas alleged that after the box office failure of 'Mahaveeryar'—in which he had invested ₹3.5–4 crore—the accused promised him a co-producer role in 'Action Hero Biju 2' and overseas rights profits. He claims the accused later concealed title transfer details and used an outdated agreement to sell the film's overseas rights to a Dubai-based company for ₹5 crore, causing him wrongful loss.

Earlier, the Court had stayed proceedings initiated against them. Thereafter, on November 24, the Court had referred the case for mediation. However, when the case came up for mediation report, it was told that mediation failed since Nivin and Abrid did not participate in the process. The Court had, subsequently, extended the interim stay of proceedings after the mediation failed.

Earlier this week, the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Vaikom had directed its Junior Superintendent to initiate criminal prosecution against Shamnas for filing a false affidavit before the court for the registration of FIR against Nivin Pauly.

Case Title: Nivin Pauly v. State of Kerala and connected case

Case No: Crl.MC 7204/ 2025 and connected case

Advocates T. Sukesh Roy and Meera Menon is appearing for Nivin Pauly and Advocates S. Rajeev, V. Vinay, M.S. Aneer, Sarath K.P., Anilkumar C.R., K.S. Kiran Krishnan, Dipa V., Akash Cherian Thomas, and Azad Sunil are representing Abrid Shine.