Couple dupes Akshaye Khanna of Rs50 lakh

MUMBAI: Actor Akshaye Khanna has filed a police complaint against an Andheri couple who allegedly duped him of Rs 50 lakh, claiming they would invest the sum in the commodity market with a promise to double it in 45 days.

"In October 2010, my client Akshaye invested the money in Intech Images, owned by the couple. They lured him with false promises of getting the money doubled in just 45 days. However, for almost three years, they continued to give him excuses instead of returning the money," the actor's lawyer Rajendra Dhuru told TOI on Saturday.

Akshaye filed a complaint with the Malabar Hill police station on Friday through his lawyer, against Satyabrata Chakravarty and his wife Sona, president and director respectively of Intech Images Private Ltd. Dhuru said the actor met the couple at a social gathering in October 2010 at Andheri. "Immediately after 45 days, Akshaye called Chakravarty according to the agreement made. But they gave excuses and asked him to wait for some more days saying they had re-invested the money and they will get an additional Rs 50 lakh excluding the Rs 1 crore under the agreement signed," the complaint stated.

The actor later exchanged a series of emails with Chakravarty's company but every time they gave him new excuses. "We have the agreement for the investment and the money was paid through cheque favouring of Intech Images Private Company," said Dhuru.

Malabar Hill senior inspector Vinay Bagade confirmed a cheating case had been registered against the couple for duping the actor, adding it had been transferred to the Economic Offence Wing (EOW). Rajvardhan Sinha, additional commissioner of police, EOW, said the couple had been called for questioning on Saturday, but there were no details of any arrests till the time of going to print.

Repeated attempts to contact Chakravarty failed as he didn't answer his mobile or respond to SMSs. Calls on his landline also went unanswered on Saturday.

A commodity trading expert told TOI that it was difficult for money to be doubled in 45 days, as the couple had claimed. "The commodity trading market is very volatile and unless very significant changes occur, no one can predict what the returns will be or the investor can even incur losses. The only fast returns can be expected in the international gold market, but there too one can't get double the investment. In the current scenario, what the actor was offered is highly impossible," he said.