A man in Uttar Pradesh state of India was scammed out of millions he invested in a movie “based on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
The victim, identified as Hemant Kumar Rai hailing from Lucknow, filed a first information report at a local police station alleging three people of defrauding him out of INR10 million in the name of a movie project based on the Indian prime minister, an Indian media outlet reported.
In his complaint, Rai, owner of an entertainment company that produces songs for YouTube, alleged that he got in contact with a man named Sanjay Singh in September last year.
Later, Singh introduced Rai to Sikander Khan and Shabbir Qureshi from Ahmedabad.
During a meeting, the three men told the complainant they were working on a movie based on Narendra Modi and obtained all necessary No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from relevant departments for the film project.
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However, the suspects claimed that they had to secure one final NOC from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The three individuals told Rai that the film production needed a sum of INR10 million to be completed and convinced him to give them the amount with the promise of a 25% profit.
According to Rai, he provided the investment in instalments and through banking channels to Qureshi, after they signed an agreement on profit-sharing arrangements.
However, Rai said that the work on the movie was halted after the three individuals made no further progress on the film production.
Hemant Kumar Rai went on to add that the suspects signed a contract with him to return his money if they failed to secure the NOC from the PM’s Office earlier this year.
Qureshi had also given him cheques worth INR5 million as assurance, however, they were dishonoured when Rai tried to encash them.
Additionally, Rai alleged that Sanjay Singh has defrauded him in the past by posing as a model, while also extorting money from him through threats and blackmail.
Meanwhile, the local police said that an FIR has been registered under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code IPC for cheating.
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