New Delhi, Feb 14 A 26-year-old man who impersonated as a director and producer has been arrested for duping hundreds of youngsters on the pretext of providing them opportunities in web series, TV serials and brand shoots, said a Delhi Police official on Tuesday.
The accused has been identified as Anuj Kumar Ojha, a resident of Gopalganj district of Bihar.
According to the police, on October 21, 2022 a complaint was received through the NCRP in which the complainant stated that a person namely Anuj played a fraud on him.
In the complaint, the victim alleged that Anuj told him that he is a director and producer. After seeing the brand paid shoots story on Instagram page, the complainant contacted the accused, who lured him and later the victim also signed an agreement to work together and paid Rs 75,000 when asked by the accused.
"When I made that payment, Anuj said that your advance will be credited to your account in two days but after some time he called me back again and asked for more money for updating profile and income tax etc etc," the complainant stated.
"The victim paid a total amount of Rs 4,43,142 and after a preliminary enquiry into the matter, a case was registered and investigation taken up," said Ravi Kumar Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer north).
During investigation, details were sought from Instagram, call details were analyzed and a money trail was conducted but to evade police arrest the accused kept on changing his location.
"On February 6, specific inputs were received that Anuj will board the Tulsi Express and go to Bhopal. Working on this information the team was sent to Bhopal, where he was apprehended while he was trying to escape to Indore. He was served notice under section 41.1 A of Cr.P.C. but he did not cooperate in the investigation and he was arrested thereafter as per due procedure of law," said the DCP.
"In the investigation done so far it has been noticed that Anuj portrayed himself as director and producer and used to cheat the youngsters in the name of providing them opportunity of acting in brand paid shoots, web series, TV serials etc. He used to cheat them in the name of paying for signing contract, contract fee, artist card, profile updating, GST, Income tax etc," said the DCP.
Earlier Anuj had been in Gorakhpur jail for three months in a cheating case of 2019. "Several cases and complaints were found registered against his name," said the official, adding that investigation of the case is in progress.
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