MUMBAI, July 10 -- Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt's former personal assistant Vedika Prakash Shetty has been arrested for allegedly siphoning off nearly Rs.77 lakh from the actor's production house. According to police sources, Shetty splurged the stolen money on iPhones, iPads, high-end kitchen appliances, and sent money to at least five other individuals. What remained, she confessed, was spent on lavish parties and shopping sprees. The fraud came to light after Bhatt's mother, actor Soni Razdan, noticed discrepancies in vendor invoices and payment records, prompting an internal inquiry that unravelled a trail of deceit. The 32-year-old was tracked down to her sister's home in Bengaluru on Tuesday by the Juhu police and will be in police custody till Thursday. She had allegedly been on the run for months - first fleeing to her native village near Mangalore and later to Rajasthan - after an FIR was filed in January. Shetty, a resident of Marol in Andheri East, was appointed on a monthly salary of Rs.40,000 as a consultant and secretary to handle the administrative and personal work of Bhatt and her production company, Eternal Sunshine Productions Pvt Ltd. Her responsibilities included managing Bhatt's travel plans, household staff, vendor payments, and even sensitive documents related to ongoing film projects. But behind the trust lay betrayal. According to investigators, Shetty began by misusing gift cards and vendor gifts in October 2022. When confronted by Bhatt's mother, actor-director Soni Razdan - also a director at the company - Shetty admitted to the misconduct and was let off with a warning. "We considered her age and her apology. We forgave her," Razdan told the police. "She promised it wouldn't happen again." But the police say the warning only emboldened her. While continuing to work in a consulting role, Shetty allegedly accessed confidential documents - including film scripts, contracts, travel plans, and business operations - and passed on this information to third parties without authorisation. Then came the financial fraud. Razdan, during an auditing process, discovered that Shetty had submitted fake invoices in the names of vendors and routed the payments into a third-party account, which ultimately funnelled the money into Shetty's own. The total amount misappropriated? Rs.76.90 lakh. A complaint was filed and the FIR registered on January 23, 2025, under Sections 316(4) (criminal breach of trust by a clerk or servant) and 318(4) (cheating) of the BNS, 2023. As the heat mounted, Shetty vanished. Her attempt to secure interim bail from the Bombay High Court was rejected. She was finally nabbed from Bengaluru after weeks of tracking....