Film director held for immigration fraud

MUMBAI: The Sahar police recently arrested Bollywood director Partho Ghosh on charges of cheating and forgery after the city’s immigration office approached them stating Ghosh had taken a group of 18 people to Canada last year on the pretext of getting them work in a film.

The police also arrested a 32-year-old woman who was part of the group and was deported from Canada after authorities there found she was in their country on forged documents. Two others are wanted in the case.

According to senior inspector Ravindra Patil of Sahar police station, 64-year-old Ghosh was arrested on September 27 and was in police custody till Tuesday, when a metropolitan court released him on a surety of Rs15,000.

On August 1, the Sahar police arrested Yamini Mistry who was amongst those who had flown to Toronto with Ghosh and his assistant Farhan Siddiqui. After staying there for about three months, Mistry was deported to India in September last year as an inquiry conducted by the Canadian authorities revealed some of her documents had been forged.

“When questioned by immigration authorities there, Mistry had said that she was part of a film crew. However, their inquiry revealed there was no film crew and no film was being shot. The immigration authorities here also found the same, after which they registered a case against Ghosh, Mistry, Siddiqui and one Rajubhai Darbar,” said Patil.

Darbar is said to have facilitated the deal.