UFO Moviez promoters to face police inquiry

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police is likely to question UFO Moviez promoters Narendra Hete and Sanjay Gaikwad by this week in connection with the FIR lodged against them for alleged cheating and forgery. The firm is the world’s largest digital cinema distributor.

Additional CP (EOW) Rajvardhan said, “We have served them summons to appear before us for questioning by this week. Further course of action will be decided after their statements are recorded.”

Only on Tuesday, a team of EOW investigators visited the firm’s office premise at MIDC Andheri and Gaikwad’s home near Thane where the searches were conducted. The police recovered a few documents and other paperwork in connection with the case. Searches are also being conducted at the homes of other senior company officers, according to sources in the agency. While the exact circumstances regarding the alleged fraud remains unclear, sources said the complaint in the case has been filed by a lawyer, advocate Anjali Jagtap.

According to EOW officers, in one of her allegations, she said the two had failed to pay her a fee of Rs 3.5 crore, in connection with a 1000-acre land purchase near Panvel. The firm was in the process of establishing mega project, ‘Energy City’, on the said land, permission for which was granted by the then Vilasrao Deshmukh government in 2006 under section 63 (A) of the Bombay Tenancy Agricultural Land Rules. A contract between the government and the firm was subsequently filed. The Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House was also slated to invest around Rs 45,000 crore for the project. The land was subsequently acquired from villagers for the project, which was expected to generate massive employment in the area.

The project, however, could not come up due to a variety of reasons and was granted extensions by the government, thereby causing a loss to the latter, according to Ms Jagtap’s complaint. Projects approved under section 63 (A) are supposed to come up within a year, police sources said. The alleged forgery pertains to the land deals with the villagers where certain documentation was allegedly forged during the acquisition process.