Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha and four others have been booked by Moradabad police in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly cheating an event organizer by accepting a payment of Rs 32 lakh, and not turning up for the event. Sonakshi has denied these allegations saying the organisers failed to make full payment before the event, despite reminders from her team. She has threatened to take legal action.
The complaint was filed by Pramod Sharma, whose Moradabad-based company was organising a fashion show in which Sonakshi was supposed to perform. Pramod alleged that he paid her an amount of Rs 32 lakh, inviting her to the prize distribution ceremony in Delhi. He said though the actress confirmed her presence she never turned up.
According to police, Sharma said he spent a total of Rs 37 lakh, including Rs 9 lakh for the actress’ stay and travel. The complaint was filed on November 24 last year. An FIR was registered this Friday after the investigating officer reportedly got no response to the notice sent to Sinha and the others. Malvika Punjabi, Edgar Sakaria, Dhumil Thakkar and Abhishek Sinha have also been charged in the case.
Pramod reportedly told ANI that after many attempts to get back his money, he filed a case against them. He had told Sonakshi about what was at stake. “I tried convincing her a lot to perform and even told her that I will incur huge losses if she doesn’t come, but she refused to perform.” The audience of the award show had left disappointed and even vandalised the venue, he said.
Meanwhile, Sonakshi’s management agency issued a statement denying a receipt of payment. According to a report in Zee News, they said that despite reminders from Sinha’s team the organisers failed to make full payment before the event.
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“Sonakshi was approached by the event organizers in Delhi to attend an event. However, despite repeated reminders, the organiser failed to make the payments to Sonakshi before the event as contracted. The tickets to Delhi were not in order/as were agreed, the organiser also didn’t send return tickets for Sonakshi and her team, despite knowing that she had a shoot the next morning after the event,” read the statement.
The team said that they reached out to the organizers for a settlement. “Ever since that day, Sonakshi’s management agency has been trying to reach out to the organiser to find an amicable solution to the extent of offering an alternate date and tried to connect but to no avail.”
They accused the company of using media to spread false news about them, and said that they will be forced to take legal action if the organisers continued defaming the actress. An investigation is currently underway by the police.
With inputs from Adithya and Shobana