A film production coordinator and three dwarves were arrested yesterday (February 17) following a year on the run to evade charges of raping a 24-year-old model last year in a pornographic film racket involving actress and model Gehana Vasisht. A special investigation team of Bombay city crime branch, probing the four pornographic film cases, arrested film production coordinator Naresh Kumar Pal and dwarves Salim Sayyed, Abdul Sayyed and Amar Burnalwal from Santacruz in Bombay, based on a tip-off. One of the four pornographic film cases involves Shilpa Shetty’s husband, Raj Kundra.
The racket had come to light in February 2021, when the property cell of the crime branch had, on the basis of a tip-off, raided a bungalow at Madh Island (Bombay) and found an obscene film being shot there. Five people had been arrested, and a woman had been rescued.
Investigations led the police to Gehana who allegedly threatened and lured women with money, to act in pornographic films. These were then uploaded on social media apps. Gehana was arrested soon after and chargesheeted. She was later released on bail.
In this case, the complainant claimed that on January 11, 2021, Gehana had offered her a role in a web series about a royal couple and three dwarves. She said, they spiked her drink when she reached the bungalow at Madh Island and forced her to have physical relations with the dwarves. She added that when she resisted, Gehana and Naresh Kumar Pal threatened her to comply, failing which she would have to pay Rs. 10 lakh as compensation for cancellation of shooting.
The duo later reportedly paid her Rs. 10,000 and uploaded the obscene film on a social media app.
Pal, Salim, Abdul and Amar have been booked under IPC sections for rape and cheating as well as under the Information Technology Act. They have been remanded to police custody till February 21.