MUMBAI: A web series-maker was abducted in his vehicle and driven around in Ghatkopar-Sion, before money was extorted from him by four persons, including an aspiring model. Pantnagar police have begun a probe and are yet to make arrests.
The 42-year-old series-maker is based out of Kandivli (W). In early March, an acquaintance informed him that a starlet was keen to be cast in a series. He called her for an audition on March 6. The 24-year-old aspiring model told him she was ready to do bold roles. They had a conversation, following which they got intimate.
Later, the model’s boyfriend called up the series-maker, accused him of exploiting her and threatened to file rape charges. The series-maker tried to explain that she had consented to having relations with him but her boyfriend was not convinced.
The series-maker kept getting calls from the model’s boyfriend and he was summoned to Ghatkopar on March 10. At Arunkumar Vaidya Garden in Ghatkopar (E), the model and her three male associates intercepted the series-maker’s car and got in. The series-maker later told police that he overheard names of two who got in his car: Vishnu and Kushal. The group roughed him up and hurled expletives at him. At knifepoint, the men got him to drive his vehicle to Wadala and then to Sion.
“Two of the men demanded Rs 4 lakh from him. They snatched his phone to transfer the money from his UPI-based payment application,” said a police officer. But the accused were not well-versed with using the app and ended up keying in wrong OTPs repeatedly. They could transfer Rs 1.4 lakh eventually. They then got him to halt the vehicle at an ATM in Sion and forced him to withdraw Rs20,000. After taking his money, they got out of the car, threatening him.
The shaken-up series-maker summoned courage to approach Kandivli police only on March 13. An FIR was registered and the case was transferred to Pantnagar police station on Monday. “The series-maker was honey-trapped. We are probing the possibility of the group similarly duping others. We are checking call data records and will make arrests soon,” said an officer.