Bengali film producer Shyam Sunder Dey has accused television couple Puja Banerjee and Kunal Verma of kidnapping and confining him in Goa and extorting lakhs from him. Dey’s wife Malabika has filed a complaint with the police and the two actors have now been booked.
Dey told Times of India that the incident happened when he had travelled to Goa with his family for a vacation. He shared that while his family returned home after five days, he stayed back due to work purposes. He then claimed that he was driving around Goa when a black Jaguar intercepted his vehicle on the main road. “It came out of nowhere and forced me to a halt. Two men got down, approached me, and insisted I step out. At first, I refused. But then I noticed Puja Banerjee, who has been like a sister to me, was present,” he stated.
Dey said that seeing Puja, he stepped out of the car, post which he was taken to a villa. “I stayed at the villa from June 1 to June 4. I wasn’t allowed to leave. Every day I tried to reason with Puja and Kunal; I reminded them we were like family, pleaded with them to stop. But all I faced were threats,” the filmmaker said.
He accused Kunal and other men thrashing him in front of Puja, and added that they even took his phones away. However, they kept one phone near him so that he could transfer the money that they demanded.
Dey said that using the spare phone, he sent his location to his wife and also secretly recorded a video in the bathroom and sent it across to her. “When they began pressing me to sign property papers, I realised this had gone too far,” he said.
The filmmaker’s wife then reached out to the police and based on her complaint, Dey was rescued from the Goa villa on June 4. Puja, Kunal and their associate Piyush Kothari have been booked under several sections of the BNS including those for abduction, extortion, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement.