From a young age she trained as a Kuchipudi dancer, under the dance couple Raja-Radha Reddy.[14] She has performed across India, with performances of Sufi music by Abida Parveen, and dance transliteration of the Urdu poems of Minu Bakshi.[15]
Personal life, Tails of the Tainted Family & Black Money
In 2011, Qureshi married London-based Indian accountant Arjun Prasad. At their wedding, Qureshi had flown in famous Pakistani sufi singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, who was detained at the airport while leaving for carrying back undisclosed amount of Rs.56 lakhs in foreign currency as his fees.[20] The couple divorced in 2012.[21] In 2019 she married Indian businessman Sahil Gilani.[4] Pernia Qureshi acquired US citizenship in 2008, thus relinquishing her Indian citizenship, but has held a Person of Indian Origin Card which has now expired and is not being issued an OCI card due to her Pakistani origin.[22][2]
Her father Moin Akhtar Qureshi was a close aide of liquor baron Ponty Chaddha. He also had close links with ex-CBI directors A.P.Singh,Rakesh Asthana and Ranjit Sinha via whom he was able to stash away hundreds of crores abroad. These links were established via BBM messages exchanged that came under the scanner of the Income Tax as well as the Enforcement Directorates. [20]
In 2014 Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election speech suggested that Moin Qureshi was being protected by Congress President Sonia Gandhi in spite of being on the radar of the Income Tax. Finally in February 2014, the income tax raided 15 locations of Moin Qureshi including that of ex-CBI Director A.P.Singh's mother from where Qureshi ran his office. [20]
Pernia Qureshi is also directly linked to these illegal money trails as her bank account was also used to launder money abroad. [23] Further, Pernia is a Director in her sister Sylvia Moin's event management company S.M Productions[24] which has been directly linked to carrying out favours via Diwali celebrations and other events for ex-CBI Director Ranjit Sinha.[25]
Qureshi and her family have several homes across the globe, some of which have come under the scanner of the Indian agencies, such as : Flat at Chesterfield house, South Audley Street, Mayfair, London; Flat no 2902, 29th floor, Paramount, Shekh Zyed Road, Dubai; Flat 265, 66th Street, 2nd Avenue apartment, Sollo building, New York; 6 Temasek, Boulevard, Suntec Tower-IV Singapore; Flat no 6 Fitzhar Dinge house, Portman square, London; and two flats in Marina and Burz Al Khalifa, Dubai, none of which were declared by Qureshi as per Indian law.[26]
Their lavish New Delhi home was designed by french architect Jean Louis and is currently attached by the Enforcement Directorate along with a fort in Bikaner, all of which are owned via shell companies.[27]
On August 25th 2017, her father Moin Qureshi was arrested and spent several months in Tihar Jail and is currently out on bail since December 2017.[28]There were Look Out notices issued against Pernia and her entire family as her father Moin Qureshi had tried to flee the country in 2016 in spite of flying restrictions [29]
Pernia's love for handbags is well known and in 2013 she was detained by the New Delhi airport customs for smuggling luxury handbags.[30]
Her Pakistani mother Nasreen Qureshi's love for luxury shopping is well known as she spent 4 crores at brands such as Chanel, Dior, Armani,etc to get invited to their fashion shows front row.[31]
Ecommerce platform
She launched an e-commerce website, Pernia's Pop-Up Shop, in 2012.[32] The site offers India's premier designers to a global clientele. Pernia's Pop-Up Shop was acquired by Purple Style Labs in 2019.
^ ab"Fashionista Extraordinaire: Pernia Qureshi". Sunday Magazine. 23 January 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2015. My trips to Pakistan have always been very good. Pakistan is like home to me. I have family there, I was born in Pakistan and my mother is from Pakistan.
^ abDon't revoke PIO card of Moin Qureshi's daughter till April 15: HC to government. PTI. 22 March 2019. New Indian Express. "However, this court is prima facie of the view that in the meanwhile, the respondents (ministries and FRRO) be restrained from revoking the petitioner's PIO/OCI card till the next date of hearing, as it is not disputed that the petitioner (Pernia Qureshi) was a citizen of India for 12 years prior to being provided the PIO card," the court said in its order. Pernia Qureshi, a US citizen, has contended in her plea that she had applied for an OCI card in 2017 after the Indian government in January 2015 issued the notification stating that all existing PIO card holders shall be deemed to OCI card holders. She has said in the petition that she was a PIO card holder since 2008 and that it was valid till 2023.
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