An ex-staffer of actor and filmmaker Punit Issar was arrested on November 25 after he tried to fraudulently take away Rs. 17 lakh belonging to Issar by compromising his Gmail account. Abhishek Narayan, who quit Punit’s job before committing the fraud but after acquiring the actor’s email id and password, sent a mail request to the NCPA in Bombay to cancel his play, Jai Shri Ram, booked for January 2023 and asked for a refund of Rs. 17 lakh paid as advance. Abhishek Narayan worked as a light man with Issar.
Punit got suspicious when he was unable to access his mail account. He approached the police on November 24. Within 24 hours, the police arrested the accused from his home in Bombay. He had changed the password to commit the fraud. The cyber police called the NCPA and stopped the transfer of funds to the account of the accused who impersonated Punit in the mail and also on phone calls he made between November 1 and 22.
While Punit and his family members were using iPhones, the fraudster used a Chinese phone to log in.