Telugu film producer Bellamkonda Suresh and his son, actor Bellamkonda Sai Sreenivas, were booked by the Hyderabad police on Friday, after a financier alleged that the duo had cheated him of Rs 85 lakh.
The case was booked by Central Crime Station (CCS) police following the order of a city court. Financier VL Sravan Kumar had approached the court alleging that Suresh and Sreenivas received money from him in instalments since 2018 to make a movie. He further claimed that Suresh had promised to name him an assistant producer in a film directed by Malineni Gopichand. However, neither promise had been kept and the father-son duo had cheated him, the financier said.
Based on Sravan’s complaint, the court ordered the police to file charges against the duo. Subsequently, a case has been registered under IPC Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 417, 420 (cheating), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy). The police also asked Sravan to provide necessary documentation and to record his statement.
Suresh, who predominantly produces Telugu films, has earlier backed films such as Rabhasa (2014), Kandireega (2011), and Shambo Shiva Shambo (2010). His son Sreenivas was last seen in the Telugu film Alludu Adhurs (2021).
Reacting to the registration of the cheating case, Suresh organised a press meet at Hyderabad on Saturday morning and flatly denied the allegations against him. The producer said, “I have not taken a single rupee from anyone. If there is proof, he should produce them before the police and the media. I am ready for any kind of punishment. He claims that this happened in 2018. If that is the case, why he did not make a single phone call to me? He should also produce his call history as proof.”
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Suresh further said that he will file a defamation case on Sravan. “I will not tolerate anyone trying to harm my children. I will resort to legal measures to tackle this situation. They are just trying to bring my sons down. A politician is behind this and he is trying to trouble us. Soon, I will procure proof and expose the scam.”
He added that he had not received any notice from the police and said he was ready to cooperate with them, if needed.
Meanwhile, Sreenivas has several films in the pipeline, including Stuartpuram Donga, a biopic on notorious thief ‘Tiger’ Nageswara Rao. He is also part of the Telugu remake of the Tamil film Karnan and is set to make his Hindi debut with Chatrapati, a remake of the Telugu film of the same name.