Man held for posing as Bollywood casting director

Chandigarh: Chandigarh Police has arrested a man for posing as an established casting director and luring young women with false promises of roles in films.

The imposter, identified as Harpreet Bawa, hails from Barnala district in Punjab. He has been remanded to two-day police custody, police said on Tuesday.

Bawa was posing as Darshan Aulakh, an established casting director, actor and owner of a leading production house in the region.

Aulakh had complained to the Chandigarh Police that a man was claiming that he was the casting director and misguiding models, aspiring actors and other women with the promise of getting them roles in Bollywood films.

“He (Aulakh) reported that a person having mobile number 7696185308 is using his name and that of the production house to cheat people. The complainant also stated that the person was misguiding new models of Chandigarh, Punjab and Mumbai by posing as Darshan Aulakh,” a Chandigarh Police Cyber Cell spokesman said here.

“The imposter allegedly used to collect pictures and videos of new models, especially girls, through WhatsApp and later extracted money by blackmailing and sexually exploiting them,” the police said.