Man arrested for posing as actor

Chandigarh: A man was arrested for allegedly posing as an actor and casting director and extracting money from aspiring models by blackmailing them, police said today.

Harpreet Bawa, a resident of Barnala district of Punjab, was arrested yesterday for allegedly posing himself as actor and casting director Darshan Aulakh, UT Chandigarh police said.

Aulakh alleged that Bawa was misusing his name along with the name of his production house, ‘Darshan Aulakh Productions’ to cheat people.

He also alleged that Bawa was misguiding the new models from Chandigarh, Punjab and Mumbai by posing himself as Aulakh.

Aulakh, who is also a line producer, claimed that the accused used to collect pictures and videos of new models especially girls through WhatsApp and extracted money from them by blackmailing them.

The complainant also provided the screenshots of chat messages of the alleged impostor with new models, in which he was allegedly asking their nude and seminude pictures for offering them to work in movies, said a release.

Bawa has been booked under relevant sections including 66C, 66D of IT Act and 354D, 384 of IPC, police said.

Aulakh, who is also playing a role in Salman Khan starrer “Sultan”, has worked in various Bollywood movies like ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, ‘Phantom’, ‘Veer Zaara’ and Hollywood movie ‘Zero Dark Thirty’. He has also played several roles in Punjabi movies.

Notably, Darshan Aulakh Productions is engaged in providing actors, shooting locations in northern part of the country.