Ahmed Ali (THE TIMES OF INDIA; December 9, 2018)

Mumbai: Prernaa Arora, who runs an A-lister movie production house, was arrested by Mumbai police’s economic offences wing (EOW) on Saturday for allegedly cheating another production company of Rs 31.6 crore. This is the fourth cheating case filed against her this year. She has been booked in three similar frauds collectively involving Rs 66 crore, said police sources.

EOW’s housing unit arrested Aroraa, director of KriArj Entertainment, which has produced, distributed and promoted recent movies such as ‘Pad Man’ and ‘Toilet - Ek Prem Katha’.

Aroraa has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections for cheating and criminal conspiracy. She was produced before the holiday court, which remanded her to police custody. The police said Nagesh Vaidikar, production manager at Pooja Films, had lodged the complaint with EOW in September.

Vaidikar said Arora, along with two other absconding accused, Arjun N Kapoor and Pratima Arora, allegedly induced Pooja Films and its head Vashu Bhagnani to provide finance for ‘Pad Man’, promising first claim on its post-release revenue. But they had already reportedly given the right to another organisation and accepted money, a fact intentionally concealed from Bhagnani. Later, they allegedly failed to return the money to Bhagnani, causing losses to the tune of Rs 31.6 crore.

During the investigation, the police learnt KriArj Entertainment had taken loans from various financial organisations for the film and kept Pooja Films in the dark. KriArj had signed a contract with Gothic Entertainment in November 2017 for ‘Pad Man’ and other films and given it first claim on their revenues. KriArj hid this fact from the complainant’s company, the police concluded.

The complainant said that Aroraa’s company had signed contracts with Gothic Entertainment for several movies, including ‘Pad Man’, ‘Batti Gul Meter Chalu’ and ‘Fanney Khan’, last year.

The police claim it found Arora took money from victims “for buying properties and maintaining a lavish lifestyle”.

They need to interrogate Arora and her associates to follow the money trail, for which they need to freeze several bank accounts in which sums were deposited, transferred and allegedly siphoned off, they added.
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Prernaa,who backed films like Rustom, Toilet - Ek Prem Katha and Padman, will be in custody till Monday, December 10, for investigation in fraud cases
Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; December 9, 2018)

On the night of December 7, Bollywood film producer Prernaa Arora was taken into custody by officials from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Crime Branch, Mumbai Police. She was produced in Mumbai’s Esplande Court yesterday, post 2 pm. It was a special hearing held on a holiday. After hearing a brief argument from Prernaa’s advocate Ashok Saraogi, lawyers from Vashu Bhagnani’s Pooja Films and a representative from the EOW, Justice P V Bulbule said that Prernaa be sent to EOW’s custody till December 10. The matter will be heard again on Monday for further proceedings.

Prernaa’s father Virindrra Arora was present in court at the time of the hearing. After the court sent her to custody, she was seen crying and hugging her father before leaving the premises.

While the representative from the EOW put forth the department’s reasons for arresting her late at night, Prernaa’s lawyer argued that the police didn’t have enough reason to take her into custody at that hour.

A source told BT, “The High Court had directed the cops to take action against her, following an FIR filed by Pooja Films on July 14, 2018 and a host of other complaints that have been made against her over a period of time by various entities that she and her company have had transactions with. Prernaa had arrived at consent terms with various parties in the past few months, but she has failed on the terms, and so she’s also expected to be tried in High Court next week for Contempt of Court.”

Earlier this year, Prernaa was also embroiled in a series of controversies over films like Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, Fanney Khan, Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Kedarnath to name a few. 
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Vallabh Ozarkar (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 9, 2018)

Prernaa Arora, the producer of critically acclaimed films like Toilet - Ek Prem Katha, Rustom and Pad Man, has been arrested for allegedly cheating film financier Vashu Bhagnani and his production house Pooja Entertainment and Films Ltd of Rs 31.60 crore.

The police said Arora, along with aides Arjun N Kapoor and Pratima Arora, is said to have “induced” Bhagnani and Pooja Entertainment to finance Pad Man and Kedarnath on the condition that they would get the rights to the films’ release. But she allegedly signed similar deals with other production houses.

Sources said Arora’s production house KriArj Entertainment Pvt Ltd gave the rights to Pad Man on November 2017 to Gothic Entertainment Pvt Ltd, and to Kedarnath to the same company as well as Kolkata-based Padma Ispat Private Ltd. But it allegedly kept Pooja Entertainment in the dark about these deals and signed contracts with it for Kedarnath in December last year and for Pad Man the following month. “It promised to give Pooja Entertainment the rights to Kedarnath for the first 12 months in India, Nepal and Bhutan,” said a police officer from the economic offences wing.

Nagesh Vaidikar, production manager of Pooja Entertainment, filed a complaint against Arora and KriArj on behalf of the company in July.

Arora has been booked under sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Another police officer said Aroraa’s bank statement revealed that she had indeed taken money from Bhagnani. “Some of the money was used to buy real estate property and valuables, and for leisure.” The officer refused to elaborate on what constituted leisure.

Mirror reached out to Aroraa’s PR team and Vaidikar, but there was no response.

Trouble began for Aroraa when actor John Abraham put out a public notice in April in a trade magazine terminating his agreement with KriArj Entertainment Pvt Ltd. He accused Arora of breach of contract over repeated delays in payment after the shooting of their film, Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran, was wrapped up on schedule last August. John subsequently moved the Bombay High Court, which ordered Pooja Entertainment to bear the cost of print and advertising and distribute the film across India. It also said John Abraham’s JA Entertainment would be credited as producer for the film. Ajay Kapoor’s Kyta Productions was also to be given credit for its contribution, but KriArj Entertainment was not to be a part of the project in any capacity.

At the same time, Arora also had a fallout with director Abhishek Kapoor over Kedarnath, bringing the film to a grinding halt. Later, Ronnie Screwvala took over the reins of the film after compensating former producers Bhushan Kumar, Arora and Ekta Kapoor to ensure that the film saw the light of day.

Aroraa’s other production, Shree Narayan Singh-directed social drama Batti Gul Meter Chalu also came to a halt after kicking off in February over several issues, including pending payments to the hotel staff in Uttarakhand.

The police said Arora has so far been booked in three cases of cheating, collectively amounting to Rs 66 crore.