Hyderabad: The Telangana police on Monday arrested an actor couple for duping several parents of lakhs of rupees on the pretext of roles for their kids in advertisements featuring Bollywood actors and cricketers, police said. The accused have been identified as Apurva Ashwin Dawda of Pune and his wife Natasha Kapoor.
They were arrested by the Cyberabad police on Monday. Cash Rs 15.60 lakhs and four smartphones were seized from them. According to the police, the couple was arrested following a complaint by a man in early January, who said the accused duped him of Rs 14 lakhs on the pretext of a role for his daughter in a promotional advertisement.
The complainant said he had gone to a mall in Kondapur to celebrate his daughter's birthday where the accused staged a ramp walk to select child models. The representatives of the ramp show asked the man to share a picture of his daughter. The man told police that he later received a WhatsApp message from the accused, who told him that they were conducting the final audition, which was held in December last year.
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The accused promised the complainant's daughter of a role in a promotional advertisement with popular south Indian actress Rashmika Mandana. However, the accused asked the complainant to deposit Rs 3.25 lakh as refundable deposit for costumes, he told the police. Besides, the accused collected another Rs 10.87 lakh for photoshoot, he added.
After learning that it was a fraud, the victim lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police, who arrested the couple on Monday. Speaking about the modus operandi of the accused, the police said that accused had created a website called CosmopolitanModel to execute their plans. Through the website, the accused contacted managers of busy malls in different cities across the country and organised ramp walks for children with the promise of roles in promotional advertisements. The accused later extorted money from the parents, who came to the shopping mall with their children. As per police, Ashwin completed Masters from University of California and continued modeling for 20 years.
