JOIN USFake filmmakers swindle dancers
Three men have been arrested for cheating dance troupes on the pretext of being film producers and directors. They also stayed in expensive hotels at Connaught Place claiming that Bollywood stars Raj Babbar, Anupam Kher and singer Mika Singh were part of their production, police said.
Madan Sharma, 28, Dinesh Arora, 27, and Naushad, 22, used to stay in expensive hotels and call dance groups for interviews and performances for part in their upcoming film.
“They used to ask the performers to keep their belongings in the hotel room and then were taken for the test outside the hotel,” said S B S Tyagi, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi). The co-accused then fled away with the belongings without paying the hotel bills.
The gang is involved in more than 12 incidents of cheating and theft of laptops of dance performers.
During interrogation, the gang disclosed that they had been cheating dance groups since last two months. They had earlier booked hotels in Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and UP, and had fled without paying bills and stealing mobile phones and laptops.
“They were staying at Hotel City Park in Pitampura when they ran out of their luck,” Tyagi added.
On July 8, a complaint about fraud and cheating was received from Satish Sharma, general manager of Corus Hotel in Connaught Place B-Block. Satish had received a telephone call on July 6, in which, the caller claimed to be from Kapoor Production House in Mumbai. “The caller asked for reservation of 10 to 15 rooms from July 7 to 17.
On July 8, Satish noticed movement of a groups of youngsters who had come for audition. Then the youngsters were told by the crew to take the breakfast in the restaurant.
Later, few youngsters approached Satish and told that they have handed over laptops, mobile phones, wallets containing cash and personal belongings and debit cards to the crew. But they were missing from their rooms, and on checking the rooms, the hotel staff noticed that neither the crew members nor their belongings were in the rooms.
Satish searched for the crew members and even tried to call on the mobile phone numbers, but they were found switched off. “The hotel and restaurant bills were found to be Rs 79,000 which were the expenses for their boarding and lodging,” Tyagi said.