Tennis player Maria Sharapova denounced in India

Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova has been denounced in India by an individual who claims to have invested in a fraudulent real estate project in which the athlete was a spokesperson.

A Delhi court has ordered the police to open an investigation after Bhawana Agarwal sued the real estate company Homestead for supposedly not having a license to build a luxury residential complex called "Ace by Sharapova," the plaintiff's lawyer, Piyush Singh, told Efe.

The plaintiff claims to have paid around 70,000 euros to reserve an apartment in a housing project that the tennis player was promoting.

"Sharapova should have ensured the legality of the project she was endorsing, that's what the law says," Singh explained to Efe as he justified including the athlete in the lawsuit.

According to the lawyer, not only did Sharapova aggressively promote the fraudulent activities of the accused, but she also publicly supported the project and is therefore part of this criminal conspiracy.

Singh stated that Sharapova traveled to India "two or three times in 2013 to meet potential buyers."

The advertising by Homestead stated that the residential complex was supposed to have a tennis court where residents "could even enjoy a private session" when they were in India.

According to Singh, the police, who were ordered last week to open the investigation, must determine within "the next 30 to 60 days" whether or not a crime was committed.

"Ace by Sharapova" is not the only project by Homestead named after a well-known athlete, as one of their projects is the "Michael Schumacher World Tower," which is currently under construction.

This is not the first time that a public figure in India has been involved in a lawsuit against a product or service they advertise.

In 2015, popular Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan was involved in a lawsuit against multinational company Nestlé for the sale of pre-cooked noodles from Maggi, one of the group's subsidiaries, which contained excessive lead and were withdrawn from the market.

Bachchan, along with other celebrities, promoted these noodles, which is why he was included among the defendants and a judge ordered a police investigation.