T-Series files complaint of extortion against Mallikarjun Pujari

A day after an FIR was lodged against T-Series head Bhushan Kumar at the DN Nagar police station in Andheri (West), Mumbai, accusing him of rape, his uncle and T-Series producer Krishan Kumar has filed an FIR against a man named Mallikarjun Pujari, accusing him of conspiring with a model to extort money from the family.

Someshwar Kamthe, senior inspector at the Amboli police station, also in Andheri (West), confirmed that case no 574/2021 had been filed by Krishan Kumar and said the matter is under investigation.

According to the complaint, from 3–10 July 2021, Pujari accused Bhushan Kumar, son of the late music mogul Gulshan Kumar, of raping a woman and demanded money for not registering a complaint. Krishan Kumar said Pujari also tried to blackmail him with the threat of defamation in the media.

The police have registered a complaint under sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of grievous death or hurt), 500 (defamation), 506 (criminal Intimidation) and 506(2) of the Indian Penal Code.

On Friday, the DN Nagar police station had lodged a complaint against Bhushan Kumar under sections 376 (rape), 420 (cheating) and 506. T-Series has denied the allegation and called it a 'counter blast' to an earlier complaint against the woman in question by the company.

In a statement, the company said, 'Mr Krishan Kumar of T-Series then spoke to Mallikarjun Pujari and Pujari asked Mr Krishan Kumar to meet him in hotel The Regenza by Tunga at 1:00 pm on 5 July 2021. Mr Krishan Kumar met him in the hotel on 5 July 2021 wherein Mallikarjun Pujari threatened him that one girl will file a police case against Mr Bhushan Kumar and showed some WhatsApp messages which were neither from the number of Mr Bhushan Kumar nor from any other member of the T-Series team and demanded huge sum of monies.

'Mr Krishan Kumar did not agree to this extortion and told Pujari in no uncertain terms that T-Series and Bhushan Kumar will never bow down to such fraudulent extortion demands and came back but managed to record the conversation with Mallikarjun Pujari wherein he can be heard trying to extort monies by giving the same reasoning.

'Mallikarjun Pujari kept calling Mr Krishan Kumar, but Krishan Kumar didn’t give in to his demands for extortion. After realizing that his nefarious designs are not yielding any result, Pujari conspired with this girl and filed a complaint of rape against Mr Bhushan Kumar at the DN Nagar police station of Andheri (W) on 15 July 2021.'