Nearly 18 months after film producer Pranav Vishwas was duped of Rs. 7 crore and accused of rape, a man arrested from Virar in Thane district is finally helping the police in solving the tricky case where the accused seemed to have vanished into thin air. Nipen Vyapari, arrested on September 13, is part of a six-member gang from Calcutta. The gang includes a small-time actress, Somita Das, who duped Vishwas after offering assistance in raising Rs. 37 crore in loans for his film project.
There are two similar cases which the gang has committed in Calcutta. It is reported that one gang member has been murdered.
Somita and the other gang members on April 14, 2021 met producer Vishwas and his CA at a hotel at Andheri in Bombay and collected a demand draft for Rs. 7 crore as processing fees. The demand draft was encashed two days later, and the money was transferred to 20 different accounts and withdrawn immediately.
Soon after the money was disbursed, Somita Das approached the Amboli police in Bombay and lodged a case of rape against the producer. Unaware of this but realising that he had been duped, Vishwas also approached the cops. That’s when the police realised that Vishwas was the man they were looking for in the rape case, but that turned out to be fake. Pranav Vishwas was asked to approach the Economic Offences Wing but after months of running around, the EOW told him that they probed only cases involving Rs. 10 crore or more.
In December last year, the case was back with the Amboli police.