Organiser Gave False Facts, Sonakshi May Take Legal Action: Team
Sonakshi’s team denied charges of cheating filed by an event organiser, who said he was duped off Rs 32 lakhs.
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After a case of cheating, criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust was registered against Sonakshi Sinha and four others, based on the complaint of an event organiser named Pramod Sharma, the actress’ management agency in a statement released on Sunday, 24 February, said Sharma was using the media to release “false and manipulated facts” and that if he didn’t stop at this, Sonakshi and her team would be forced to take legal action, IANS reported.
The Police had earlier said that the others named in the complaint, other than Sonakshi, were Malvika Punjabi, Dhumil Thakkar, Edgar Sakaria and Abhishek Sinha, and that they had defrauded the complainant of Rs 32 lakh.
The Organiser’s Claim Against Sonakshi
According to Sharma, Sonakshi had agreed to attending an event in Delhi in September last year, for which he had made all the arrangements, including sending across the flight tickets. However, Sonakshi had failed to show up for the event, which led to serious monetary losses for Sharma, The Times of India reported.
The event was called ‘India’s Fashion and Beauty Award’ and was reportedly supposed to be held at Sri Fort Auditorium in Delhi on 30 September 2018.
He claimed that Sonakshi had even released a promotional video for the awards, after she had received the money and signed a memorandum of understanding for the event. He added that his company had then gone forth and bought seven return tickets from Mumbai to Delhi - two of which were Business Class tickets.
“ They then called me up to change the timing of the event which I denied. The function timing was fixed at 4pm and the tickets for the event were sold out,” he told The Times of India.
Confirming this, SSP Ravendra J Gaud told the newspaper that the allegations levelled against Sinha and others, were found to be true, and that this transaction took place through net-banking.
“The complainant had also produced a copy of MoU that was signed by Sonakshi Sinha. We have instructedthe Katghar police station to registered an FIR against Sonakshi Sinha and her associates. Further investigation will be carried out into the matter,” the SSP said.
Sonakshi’s Agency Denies Charges
On learning about the "misinformation" doing the rounds, Sonakshi's management agency released an official statement on Sunday, which said:
"Sonakshi was approached by the event organiser in Delhi to attend an event. However, despite repeated reminders, the organiser failed to make the payments to Sonakshi before the event as contracted.”
Several attempts were made to contact the organiser requesting him to make the contracted payments and send the tickets. However, he "remained incommunicado and didn't live up to his end of the bargain", they said in their statement, IANS reported.
The agency’s statement further read: "Due to a lack of commitment by the organiser, Sonakshi and her team were left with no choice but to return home from Mumbai airport."
Ever since that day, Sonakshi's management agency had 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.
“We request media to not let anyone use their platform without looking into the facts,” they said.
(With inputs from IANS and The Times of India)
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