Slumdog Millionaire actor held for extortion

A 21-year-old actor of Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire was on Monday arrested for allegedly extorting money and threatening to kill a casting director by posing as brother of underworld don Chhota Shakeel, police said.

The victim, who is also production-head of Ramanand Sagar production, was threatened by the accused over phone, seeking roles in his serials, they said.

The actor, identified as Ajit Pandey, had played a character called 'Javed Goon' in the Oscar winning movie. He has also acted in several serials.

Introducing himself as Irfan Husri, brother of Chhota Shakeel, he threatened the victim to give roles to his friend Ajit Pandey. However, police probe revealed that it was Pandey, who made threatening calls in the name of Husri.

"On May 24, Pandey phoned the victim introducing himself as Husri. He said that he is a brother of Chhota Shakeel and told the victim to provide good roles to actor Pandey, who is his close aide," Joint Police Commissioner (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.

The officer said the accused told the victim that Pandey had once worked with Shakeel's gang but now he wanted live normal life. He was produced before a local court which remanded him to police custody till June 27.