New Delhi: Bengali film producer Shyam Sundar Dey has accused actors Puja Banerjee and Kunal Verma of kidnapping and extorting Rs 23 lakh from him in Goa. Dey’s wife, Malabika, has now filed a police complaint, and both actors have been charged in the case.
Speaking to The Times of India, Dey shared that he was kidnapped during a family vacation in Goa. “My family stayed with me for about five days. They returned home for my child’s education, and I decided to stay on to attend to some business matters,” he said.
While driving a rented car, Dey alleged that a black Jaguar intercepted his vehicle on the main road. “It came out of nowhere and forced me to stop. Two men got down, approached me, and insisted I step out — all of which, I assume, will be captured on CCTV. At first, I refused. But then I saw Puja Banerjee — who has been like a sister to me — present at the scene. Seeing her, I let my guard down, thinking this must be a misunderstanding,” Dey recounted.
He further alleged that upon seeing Puja, he stepped out of the car, after 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 and pleaded with them to stop. But all I faced were threats,” the filmmaker said.
Dey stated that he used a spare phone to send his location to his wife and secretly recorded a video in the bathroom, which he also sent to her. “When they began pressing me to sign property papers, I realized this had gone too far,” he said.
In a Facebook post, Dey’s wife Malabika claimed that Puja and Kunal threatened to falsely implicate the filmmaker in a drug-related case if he didn’t pay them. She alleged that the couple extorted Rs 23 lakh out of the Rs 64 lakh they had demanded.
Puja and Kunal have not officially responded to the allegations. Notably, the news comes just days after the couple claimed in a separate post that they had lost “everything” in a financial fraud by someone extremely close to them, losing all their savings.
