Chandigarh Police has arrested a man for posing as a casting director and luring young women with false promises of film roles.
The imposter, identified as Harpreet Bawa, is from the Barnala district in Punjab. He has been remanded to two-day police custody, police said on Tuesday.
Bawa was posing as a real casting director, Darshan Aulakh, who is also an actor and owner of a production house in the region.
Earlier, Aulakh complained to Chandigarh Police that a man was using his name to dupe models, aspiring actors and actress, promising them roles in Bollywood films.
“He [Aulakh] reported that a person... 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.
“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.