‘Fraud’ producer held

Uttar Pradesh police have arrested a fraudster who posed as a film producer and duped dozens of movie aspirants of lakhs of rupees by promising them work and asking them to invest in his production house.

The Varanasi unit of the UP police’s special task force (STF) arrested Shravan Kumar Jaiswal (36), who hails from Gorakhpur, on Wednesday.

He was working out of a hotel room in Varanasi and used to give advertisements in newspapers to lure vulnerable youngsters into his web, Durgesh Kumar, deputy superintendent of police, STF, told reporters. He then conducted auditions and even took the dreamy-eyed boys and girls to “shooting locales”, he said.

STF officials said Jaiswal used to run a production house Pandav Film Production since 2008, and asked prospective actors to invest between Rs50,000 and Rs 1 lakh each in his film Gaunva ke log (rural people).