Arijit Singh gets an extortion threat

Gangster Ravi Pujari allegedly demanded INR50 million from the singer

MUMBAI: Popular Hindi film singer Arijit Singh on Monday claimed he received an extortion call from gangster Ravi Pujari, who demanded a “ridiculous amount of money”. Reportedly, the Suno Na Sangemarmar hitmaker was asked to give INR50 million.

However, without giving any figure, Arijit confirmed the matter via an official statement to the media.

In the statement, he narrated: “I generally don’t answer to unknown numbers. That day when Ravi Pujari called, my phone was off and he called my manager. He told him that he wants to talk to me and made a conference call. By then, I got to know from him that he was asking a ridiculous amount of money.

Over the phone, the gangster was talking like a gentleman and asked the singer to sing songs for him and told him, to be in touch.

Arijit didn’t feel the need to get police protection after Pujari’s call even though reports indicate that following a statement by the singer’s manager at the Oshiwara police station, the officials made a diary entry of the matter.

“My manager gave a statement to the police about it. And they confirmed with me as well. They offered me security but I told them I have not been threatened so I don’t need security,” he said.

According to reports, when Arijit told Pujari he doesn’t have that much money and will not be able to meet the demand, the latter told him to do a couple of shows organised by his men instead.

Arijit does not want the matter to be hyped in the media.

On Twitter, he wrote: “It’s a humble request to media to stop bothering me about news. There are other important things happening in India.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2015.

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