Priti Pathak
THE popular television serial ‘Chumma’ actress Leena Maria Paul and her live-in partner Shekhar Chandrashekhar have been arrested by Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police for allegedly cheating nearly 1,000 persons a tune of Rs. 10 crore by promising them 300 per cent returns on their invested amount. Not enough, top lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri’s son and nephew have been also arrested into the scam.
Main accused Leena Paul became a familiar face in the entertainment industry after she acted in Mohanlal’s “Red Chillies”, John Abraham’s “Madras Cafe”, “Husbands in Goa” and “Cobra”. She has also acted in popular TV serial “Chumma”.
According to police the accused, who began an investment firm named ‘Lion Oak India’ and illegally accepted cash deposits by floating various bogus schemes which were named like ‘Lucky Number 5’, ‘Special Harvest Week’, ‘Super Harvest Plus’ among others. The accused failed to keep their promises made to investors. The duo had reportedly claimed to return 10 times their investment within a short span of time.
The other accused identified as Adil Hussain Jaipuri, Akhtar Hussain Jaipuri, Salman Pheroz Rizvi and Nasir Mumtaj Jaipuri.
The accused were remanded to police custody till June 4.
Leena is a resident of Imperial Heights building in Goregaon, West. EOW officials raided here and recovered nine high-end cars including a Maserati, Bentley, Mercedes, Audi, Nissan among others worth Rs 6.5 crore. Police team also recovered 117 imported watches worth Rs 1.17 crore from the house.
However, this is not the first time the “Madras Cafe” actress has been arrested in a cheating case.
In May 2013, Leena was arrested for duping Canara Bank, Chennai of Rs 19 crore with her live-in partner. During the investigation, luxury cars, including Ashton Martin, Range Rover, BMW 530 D, Rolls Royce Phantom, Audi A4, worth 20 crore and 81 watches were seized from their farmhouse.