Mumbai: Man held for hacking actor Puneet Issar's email account, getting show of play cancelled, pocketing Rs 13.76 lakh

Actor Puneet Issar, 64, who played Duryodhan in BR Chopra's popular teleserial Mahabharat (1988), escaped losing more than Rs13 lakh after an employee hacked the e-mail that he had used to book a theatre at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) for his play.

The actor realised his account had been hacked and approached the police in time, which prevented the money being paid to the suspect, identified as Abhishek Narayan, 34, a resident of Madh. Mr Narayan was arrested by the Oshiwara police on Friday.

According to the police, the suspect hacked the actor’s e-mail account and sent an e-mail and got one of his shows cancelled. He then requested the theatre to refund the booking amount of Rs 13.76 lakh and shared an account number.

When Mr Issar tried to access his e-mail account, he felt something was not right and approached the Oshiwara police station.

“We enquired with the NCPA about the cancellation of the show and prevented the transfer of the cash,” an officer said. “Using the account details given by the suspect, we got his mobile number after which we tracked and arrested him from Madh area in Malwani.”

Mr Narayan has been remanded in police custody till Nov 28 and charged with cheating and other offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act.

The show cancelled was of the play Jai Shri Ram — Ramayan, written, produced and directed by Mr Issar and his son Siddhant.