The life and times of IPL team owner Raj Kundra

Raj Kundra describes himself on his website as a college drop-out made rich by the discovery of pashmina shawls on a visit to Nepal. He calls it life-changing.

His website does not register his other life-changing experience, the one that made him famous - his association with Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty, now his wife of four years. On the website, Ms Shetty is largely relegated to the photogallery.

Mr Kundra's brush with scandal - he faces allegations of betting big money on his own Indian Premier League team, the Rajasthan Royals - is likely to be a third life-changing experience. He has already been questioned by the police for over 10 hours this week, his passport is now with them and he cannot leave the country to pursue the jet-set life of a millionaire that he lives.  

He owns an opulent beach apartment in Mumbai's Juhu and several luxury cars including a Bentley and a Lambhorgini, but has emphasised in interviews that his life was not always one of luxury.

Born in Britain to a middle-class first generation business family - his father had traveled from Ludhiana to London - Mr Kundra, 37, likes to say he was taught the value of money early. He was 18 when he backpacked in Nepal and discovered Pashminas. He had them shipped to England and sold them to fashion houses.

When that business began to flag, he went to Dubai and began trading in diamonds. Many years later he bought his wife Shilpa an apartment in the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, as a first anniversary gift. The couple own several other luxurious homes, including a mansion in Surrey where, media reports say, they count Cliff Richards and Elton John as neighbours.

Both Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra have claimed that their relationship post dated the end of his two-year old first marriage by many months. Mr Kundra divorced his first wife Kavita, soon after the couple had a daughter and she told the British media that Ms Shetty had broken her marriage.

Mr Kundra is said to have met Ms Shetty when she gained international popularity as the winner of reality television show Celebrity Big Brother. She won hearts and votes as the dignified victim of racial attacks and was suddenly transformed from Bollywood actor with slipping ratings to international icon.  

She would have her own perfume and Mr Kundra helped launch it.

Highlights after marriage were the co-ownership of an IPL team and the birth of son Viaan, a story told minutely on Twitter by the lanky Ms Shetty.

Mr Kundra had recently also announced India's first professionally organized mixed martial arts fighting league, the Super Fight League, in partnership with actor Sanjay Dutt, who is in jail.