Trial reveals mob link to Bollywood
A Bombay court yesterday sentenced a millionaire diamond merchant turned film mogul to a year's jail for failing to expose an extortion racket targeting film stars.
Bharat Shah's conviction underpinned police reports of close links between organised crime and India's glamorous Hindi film world. Despite murder attempts on Bollywood figures and reports of blackmail, proof of a mob link had been elusive.
Shah was convicted for "concealing information to facilitate crime" but was acquitted of extorting money and conspiring with gangsters to force Bollywood stars into signing contracts. One witness, the actor Preity Zinta, testified that she had been asked to pay £67,000 "or face the consequences".
The judge ordered Shah freed since he had already spent 14 months in jail.
Shah's producer, Nasim Rizvi, and an assistant, Abdul Rahim Allahbaksh, got six years each for involvement in an extortion racket.
Bharat Shah's conviction underpinned police reports of close links between organised crime and India's glamorous Hindi film world. Despite murder attempts on Bollywood figures and reports of blackmail, proof of a mob link had been elusive.
Shah was convicted for "concealing information to facilitate crime" but was acquitted of extorting money and conspiring with gangsters to force Bollywood stars into signing contracts. One witness, the actor Preity Zinta, testified that she had been asked to pay £67,000 "or face the consequences".
The judge ordered Shah freed since he had already spent 14 months in jail.
Shah's producer, Nasim Rizvi, and an assistant, Abdul Rahim Allahbaksh, got six years each for involvement in an extortion racket.
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