Barnala man held for casting couch

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 28

The cyber crime investigation cell of the UT police has arrested a Barnala resident for the casting couch.

The accused allegedly posed himself as a casting director and lured young women and aspiring models with false promises of casting them in movies and songs.

According to the police, Darshan Aulakh, a resident of Sector 21 who is an actor and casting director, complained to the police that a man was using the name of his production house, Darshan Aulakh Productions, to lure models from Chandigarh, Punjab and Mumbai.

In his complaint to the police, Aulakh alleged that the imposter posed as Darshan Aulkah and collected pictures and videos of new models, especially girls, through WhatsApp and later started extracting money by blackmailing and sexually exploiting them.

Inspector Harinder Sekhon, in-charge of the cyber cell, said the complainant had also provided screenshots of chats of the accused with models, in which he asked them to send semi-nude and nude pictures, promising them a role in movies.

The police said after a scrutiny of the call details, the accused was identified as Harpreet Bawa. He was arrested yesterday. He was produced in the court today, which remanded him in two-day police custody.

A case under Sections 66-C (punishment for identity theft) and 66-D (punishment for cheating by impersonation by using computer resource) of the IT Act and Sections 354-D (stalking) and 384 (extortion) of the IPC has been registered against the accused at the Sector 19 police station.