Mumbai: Two months after actor Hrithik Roshan's 2016 case against an unknown imposter was transferred to the Criminal Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the crime branch, the CIU is likely to summon Hrithik to record his statement. "We are in the process of issuing summons to him and he will be called for recording his statement this week," said an officer close to the investigation.
"During the investigation so far, it has been revealed that some 950 emails had been sent to Hrithik, from two email IDs bearing the words Kangana Ranaut in the email address in combination with different numerals in the ids. The emails were sent between April-June 2014 and some were obscene in nature," alleged the officer. Of the 950 such emails, around 350 were under the scanner, he added.
In December last year, Hrithik's counsel approached the Mumbai police commissioner regarding the pending investigation and days later, the case was transferred to the CIU. In 2016, Hrithik had filed a complaint against an imposter who had allegedly been emailing actress Kangana Ranaut through 'his' email ID.
According to police, they will record Hrithik's statement first and later call Ranaut to record her statement. The CIU will also record statements of the police officer who registered the case in 2016 and the then investigation officer in the case. Police had then recorded around 35 statements in the case, including those of Hrithik and Ranaut.
In June 2017, police submitted a 'Nil' report after the forensic expert failed to establish any facts about the email ID, saying it was located in the US.
In 2016, on a complaint by Hrithik, the cyber police station in the Bandra Kurla-Complex registered an offence against an unknown imposter under the IPC section of 419 (cheating by personation), along with section 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act.
Prior to the FIR, Hrithik had, in 2014, complained that an unknown person was talking to his fans through an email ID similar to his original ID. The only difference in the two IDs was the domain name.
In 2016, when the case was filed, the two actors were at loggerheads, slapping each other with legal notices. According to reports, Hrithik had first sent a legal notice and demanded an apology from Ranaut and to clear the air about their alleged affair that he refuted firmly. Refusing to apologise, Kangana had then sent a counter-notice, warning the actor to take back his notice or face a criminal case.