Film-maker Ismail Darbar held for assaulting asst director

A day after a 29-year-old assistant director filed a complaint against music composer-turned-film director Ismail Darbar, the Amboli police arrested Darbar on charges of assault and criminal intimidation on Wednesday. After producing him in a metropolitan magistrate court, the director was granted bail on a surety of Rs10,000, said the police.

The complainant, Prashamit Chaudhary had alleged that Darbar, along with his son Zaid, 21 and his friends Nishant Singh, 21 and Mohsin Khan, 29, had assaulted him with hockey sticks on Monday night in his building parking lot. The other accused were arrested on Tuesday.

Chaudhary was allegedly beaten up by the four over pending salary issues. The incident happened in the parking lot of Evershine Cosmic building in Link Road, Jogeshwari (W), where Chaudhary lives.

A police officer said: "The complainant worked as an assistant director in Darbar's upcoming film and Darbar, being the director, allegedly failed to pay his salary as promised."

The officer said that he did not get any response from Darbar when he requested for the same. The duo allegedly had an argument over the phone on Monday and Darbar allegedly threatened to beat him up.

On Monday, Zaid went to Chaudhary's home and told him that they have brought the money and that it was kept in the car. He took him to the parking lot of the building, where he promised to hand over the money. In the parking lot, Darbar and the other three accused assaulted him with hockey sticks, after which all four fled from there.

Following this, the security guard was informed by the victim's friend, after which Chaudhary approached the police and registered the case.