The police have detained a member of a congang who, according to them, defrauded numerous Bollywood celebrities out of thousands of rupees by promising to upload their films to OTT con and extorting money from them by presenting them with fictitious service provider’s letters. According to the authorities, among those taken advantage of by the group were producer Gaurang Doshi and actor Vivek Oberoi.
Rajat Kumar Mourya (29) was arrested by the cybercrime cell of the north region on Thursday at his home in Jogeshwari. According to the police, more individuals are now likely to file complaints.
Filmmaker Maan Singh is the complainant in this case. He was making movies and wanted to release them on an OTT platform to meet the growing online demand following Covid-19.
Singh and Mourya were introduced by their mutual acquaintance Karansingh Chouhan, who mentioned that Mourya had solid relationships with representatives of OTT platforms. Mourya said that for Rs 10 lakh each film, he might release Singh’s next films on OTT sites.
For previous releases that he had assisted, Mourya displayed a number of credentials that appeared to be from OTT platforms. Singh made the decision to provide him the contract for his films.
Mourya first accepted Rs 2.5 lakh as a symbolic sum in January 2021. Additionally, he sent Singh a WhatsApp message that contained a statement of intent from Panorama Studios outlining the studio’s intentions to purchase one of Singh’s films for Rs. 4 crore.
“Mourya also said he had given Rs 1.5 lakh to an official of Panorama Studio and took the said amount [from Singh],” an officer said.
Two days later, Mourya submitted a letter of intent from another business informing Singh that the OTT platform had agreed to purchase two more films in exchange for the sum of Rs 1.5 lakh. Singh paid using his online banking. Mourya stole another Rs. 1.5 lakh from Singh and introduced him to other individuals by claiming they were from the directing, production, creative, and technology departments.
Singh travelled to Manali to complete the filming for “MD.” Mourya, who was with Singh, advised him not to sign Rahul Dev and Divya Dutta since Hotstar had advised him to select different performers.
He also proposed hiring writer Akshata Suluja to improve MD, for which he would charge Rs 5.5 lakh. Sanjay Kapoor and Anupriya Goenka were requested by Suluja to be taken, and Mourya then demanded an additional Rs 15 lakh from Singh.
When Hotstar failed to respond, Suluja and Mourya presented Singh to their “partners,” Radhika and Sanjay Shah, suggesting they would assist in finding an alternative OTT platform provided Singh supplied further monies.
Singh finally understood that despite spending Rs 48 lakh, he had received nothing in return. A FIR was filed by him.
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