Conman held for duping woman of ₹82L claiming he could fix meeting with Kartik Aryan

Amboli police arrest man for duping aspiring producer of ₹82.75 lakh, promising meeting with Kartik Aryan for film. Accused arrested in Karnataka.

MUMBAI: The Amboli police on Wednesday arrested a 29-year-old man for allegedly duping an aspiring movie producer of ₹82.75 lakh claiming he could fix a meeting with Bollywood actor Kartik Aryan.

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The complainant, Goregaon resident Aishwarya Sharma, 40, wanted to produce a film featuring a Bollywood actor. In 2022, she met the accused, identified as Krishna Kumar Ramvilas Sharma, who claimed he worked as a liaisoning agent between producers and actors. He told Aishwarya Sharma that he would fix a meeting with actor Kartik Aryan for the film “Love in London” which she wanted to produce by investing ₹1 crore, said a police officer.

In April-May 2023, Aishwarya gave the accused ₹82.75 lakh to facilitate the meeting, but he kept stalling her proposal for months thereafter, saying Aryan was busy with outdoor shoots or advertisement campaigns. When she found that Sharma was not connected to anyone in Bollywood and was a conman, she approached the Amboli police with a complaint, based on which the police registered a cheating case against him.

In May this year, police launched a manhunt for the accused when they learnt that crime branch officers had arrested some of his accomplices from a five-star hotel in Bengaluru. Police traced Sharma through these associates and arrested him from Karnataka on Wednesday.

Booked under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code, he was produced before the court on Thursday and remanded to police custody. Police said Sharma was wanted in at least six cases of cheating and breach of trust registered at Vakola and Sahar police stations in Mumbai, Connaught Place police station in New Delhi and Chennai.

“Sharma is a history sheeter. We are questioning him to find out what he did with the money had taken from the complainant,” said a police officer from Amboli police station.