Duo offer TV series roles to job aspirants; dupe them for Rs 1 crore

Mumbai crime branch's Unit 9 have arrested two people who pretended to pose as office-bearers of CINTAA Private Limited on the pretext of providing jobs to newcomers and junior actors and took money from them. The accused said that they will provide these victims with roles in Star TV serials like Krishna Bahu etc. but never actually did so.

The accused have been identified as Avinash Arunkumar Sharma, 24, who is a Software Engineer and the alleged mastermind behind the scam and Vinod Bhandri, 30, the partner.

According to the DCP, Akbar Pathan, crime branch, the accused first hunted for such job aspirants. Then, Sharma, who is a good speaker, would use his convincing skills on them and Bhandri would explain the entire process of bagging the role.

After this, the accused would ask them to send their video clips and profile pictures in order for them to sen over to the producer of the TV shows. An officer said, "After some days if the response was positive, they would ask them to deposit money for the entire process."

The duo would also send the victims an email of their selection and would accept the money for their 'services' through Paytm or online banking.

When these job aspirants figured out that they have been cheated by the two accused, they approached the police, following which, the crime branch was asked to look into the matter.

Later, under the supervision of Senior inspector Mahesh Desai, inspector Asha Korke and Assistant Police Inspector Sudhir Jadhav started an investigation and initially found that the accused have cheated over 75 job aspirants and the scam is an estimated Rs 1 crore.

The police then summoned the other officials and inquired them. The crime branch officer police then arrested the accused.

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