Mumbai: The city cyber police probing the OTT scam on Sunday arrested the alleged key player of the gang that cheated several Bollywood personalities of lakhs by promising them to upload their movies on OTT platforms and taking large sums from them by showing them fake letters of service providers. Actor Vivek Oberoi and producer Gaurang Doshi were among those cheated by the gang, said police.

“We got a tipoff that Sanjay Saha was to visit his Andheri (W) home. We laid a trap and arrested him,” said an officer. “He was produced before the holiday court which remanded him to police custody. ”

Last week, the cyber crime cell of the north region had arrested Rajat Kumar Mourya (29) from his residence in Jogeshwari. He allegedly spilled the beans on Saha, AnupSingh, Akash, Akshat Suluja and Radhika.

Police said after Mourya’s arrest, four more victims have approached them with similar complaints. They are in the process of filing fresh FIRs.

Mourya was arrested based on a complaint by film producer Maan Singh, who wanted to release two movies on an OTT platform to cater to the increased demand amid the pandemic. Singh said he met Mourya through a common friend and he introduced him to Saha. Police said Mourya showed Singh various certificates purportedly from OTT platforms for past releases that he had facilitated. Singh decided to give him the contract for his movies. In January 2021, Mourya took Rs 2.50 lakh as token amount and sent Singh a WhatsApp message in which there was a letter of intent from Panorama Studios mentioning its willingness to buy one of Singh’s movies for Rs 4 crore. Two days later, Mourya sent a letter of intent from another company saying the OTT platform had agreed to buy two other movies, for which Singh needed to pay Rs 1.50 lakh. Singh paid through netbanking.

“Saha promised Singh that he would release his movies on OTT platforms and on the pretext of paying the officials, took Rs 48 lakh from him. Saha, in connivance with his aides, also issued fake certificates of OTT agreements for releasing Singh’s movies,” said the officer. Singh told TOIthat had his cameraman not suspected foul play and alerted him, he would have lost more money.

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Mumbai: Actor, screenwriter and producer Akshat Raj Saluja has been arrested by Mumbai cyber police for his alleged involvement in the OTT scam which came to light after film producer Maan Singh filed a complaint stating that he was duped of Rs 48 lakh by a group of conmen who promised to upload his movies on OTT platforms and took Rs 48 lakh by showing him fake letters of service providers.

Saluja, the screenwriter for film ‘Rashtra Kavach Om’, web series ‘Shiksha Mandal’ and ‘Yaargii’ and the producer of Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer ‘Dream Girl’, is the third accused to be arrested in the case. Cyber police had earlier arrested Jogeshwari resident Rajat Kumar Mourya and Andheri resident Sanjay Saha. They are now looking for a woman identified only as Radhika.

Police claimed that Saluja was one of the beneficiaries and had received Rs 7.50 lakh of Rs 48 lakh extracted from Singh. Saluja was booked for cheating, forgery, and breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code as well as under the Information Technology Act. On Thursday, Saluja was produced before the Borivli court, which remanded him to police custody.

In his complaint, Singh said he wanted to release two movies — MD and Alpaviram —on an OTT platform to cater to the increased demand amid the pandemic. Singh said Mourya showed him certificates purportedly from OTT platforms for past releases that he had facilitated. Singh decided to give him the contract for his movies. In January 2021, Mourya took Rs 2.50 lakh as token amount and sent Singh a WhatsApp message with a fake letter of intent from Panorama Studios mentioning its willingness to buy one of Singh’s movies for Rs 4 crore.

“On the basis of this forged letter of intent, Mourya, Saha, Radhika and Saluja extracted Rs 48 lakh from Singh,” said a police officer.

Police said actor Vivek Oberoi and filmmaker Gaurang Doshi too have been cheated by this gang.