Rajpal Yadav, who shot to fame post Ram Gopal Varma’s Jungle, is in a legal mess. The Delhi High Court has sentenced Rajpal to a ten day jail sentence for contempt of court on Tuesday, December 03, 2013. He and his wife Radha were held guilty for misleading the court and avoiding appearance in a recovery suit of Rs 5 crore pending against them.

Rajpal Yadav’s wife got away with lighter punishment as the court noted that she had an infant to take care of and ordered her to be in custody for one day.

His first directorial debut film Ata Pata Lapata has run into trouble from his failed commitments. The film is a take on the theatrical comedy and dance genre, and reflects the nautanki story of the Indian theatre. It is a true showcase of how theatre has evolved in the Indian cinema.

The recovery suit had been filed by Delhi based businessman M G Agarwal against Rajpal and his wife Radha, after they failed to repay Rs 5 crore which the actor had taken in 2010 to make his directorial debut through the film Ata Pata Laapata.

Justice S Muralidhar said the couple, who had been held guilty of contempt earlier, were avoiding appearance before it to present their views on quantum of sentence.

This case presents a shocking state of affairs. Rajpal and Radha have already been punished for contempt of court and the case has been kept pending only on the question of sentence. Instead of mitigating the contempt committed, defendants Rajpal and Radha have systematically aggravated the contempt by making misleading statements in court and acting in defiance of the court’s order.

The court also issued contempt notices to the lawyer of Rajpal Yadav’s wife for allegedly lying about her whereabouts and the oath commissioner who had attested the affidavit.

Referring to yesterday’s proceedings, the court said that Radha’s lawyer told us a lie that Radha was in Delhi or in Ghaziabad when, in fact, she was in Mumbai.