T-Series, cops scout for fraud director

Complaint lodged against accused who duped aspiring actors for role in upcoming movie Radhe Shyam

Leading production house T-Series has lodged a complaint with the police claiming that someone had been falsely claiming to be associated with the company and on the pretext of providing roles and taking auditions for upcoming movie Radhe Shyam had been duping aspiring actors by accepting money. The accused had also used fake letterhead of the company to dupe victims.

Assistant police inspector VR Gaikwad of Amboli police station confirmed that an FIR has been registered by T-Series on Monday but refused to divulge further details of the case.

According to the police sources, a complaint was filed by a senior official of TSeries LJ Joseph, stating that one Pritesh Jain, who is neither a casting director nor an employee of T-Series, had prepared bogus identity card of the company and had accepted money from aspiring actors for auditions, by giving them bogus offer of role in T-Series upcoming movie Radhe Shyam. The accused had also prepared bogus letter head of the company.

"The company in their complaint has stated that Pritesh Jain used to approach aspiring actors through social media claiming to provide them a prominent role such as brother of the lead actor in the movie. The accused also sought photographs from job aspirants and had also told them to keep their passports ready as the movie would also be shot overseas. The accused would send a QR code to the victims and would ask them to send money for auditions," said a police officer.

He added, two persons had visited the Link Road in Andheri West office of T-Series and had made enquiries about Pritesh Jain, who had promised them a role in the movie and had taken money from them.

The company then realised that someone is committing a fraud after which the company approached the police.

"We suspect the accused is using a false identity of Pritesh Jain and is not even a resident of Mumbai. He had not met victims in person and used to only communicate with them over the phone," the officer said. When contacted, the complainant named in the FIR did not wish to comment.

A case has been registered under sections 419 (Punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (Punishment for forgery), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 477 (Fraudulent cancellation, destruction, etc., of will, authority to adopt, or valuable security) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Copyright Act.