mumbai the cyber police at bandrakurla complex bkc has arrested a 47yearold aspiring actor for allegedly impersonating as a casting director and duping over 80 people of around rs 2 crore by promising to give a break to their minor children in the entertainment industry since 2017 the accused apurva ashwin dowda who has an mba degree from a us university and is registered with cintaa and writers association was a repeat offender he ran fake websites with promotions on casting for films television and ads said the police dowda has featured in a few ads cyber police apprehended dowda when he arrived at khallapur toll on the mumbaipune expessway on june 10 he was living in a 3500 sq ft rental flat in pune said the police dowda allegedly told cops that he duped people to release his movie trance for which he has already spent rs 25 lakh on launch advertisementshe was arrested based on a complaint of borivli resident mahesh gupta 47 who runs an aircraft spare parts business gupta said he saw a casting offer for children for a film bacho ki duniya on social media and decided to sign up his daughter gupta said i transferred around rs 33 lakh through different bank accounts however he got suspicious when dowaa kept demanding more money and so lodged a complaint joint commissioner of police crime milind bharambe supervised said dcp cyber rashmi karandikar who led the teaminspectors mangesh majgar pramod khoppikar and cyber detection staffwho chased dowda across the country before nabbing him on mumbaipune expressway with the help of state traffic policethough dowda is highly qualified he took up crime to earn fast money said karandikar our team had been searching for him for the last six months he would live on rent in luxury flats for hardly a month or two so that no one will track him we recovered nine mobiles with 40 sims some international sims nine bank accounts multiple passports and an international driving licence the police have recovered most of guptas money the police said dowda was arrested a few years ago for a similar offence and spent time in arthur road jail in 2010 he has previous similar cases against him at police stations in sakinaka oshiwara amboli nm joshi marg and dadar he also has an office zenia star in dubai and uses the same modus operandi there said the police