Film producer arrested for cheating

MUMBAI: The Oshiwara police have arrested a film and TV serial producer, Varinder Kumar for allegedly cheating several Bollywood personalities, including lyricist Sameer Pandey, of crores of rupees. The police arrested him on Wednesday from Andheri (West) where he has a house.
Sameer Pandey, who had paid Rs 80 lakh for a flat came to know Kumar through a common friend."He told me that his company was allotted seven Mhada flats under the chief minister's quota and offered one to me. I paid the money at his residence after signing the agreement. But he didn't give me the agreement copy. When ever I enquired him about the flat he would ask me to wait citing different reasons," said Pandey.
Hitesh Bhatt, Abas Mastan, Chitresh Shrivastva and Ashok Gaikwad were also tricked by Kumar. He had allegedly cheated a builder, Murarilal Modi, after promising to introduce his son in a film as a lead actor last year. .
Film-maker Ashok Pandit had approached a senior police officer recently. Pandit said, "Kumar's website showed a list of approved TV serials he was producing for different channels but when contacted the concerned channels they said they do not know about any such production agreements."
Kumar denied the allegation when he was interrogated by the police and claimed that he took the money from the people to produce the films and had returned it.