RSSB chief Baba Gurinder Dhillon's associates threatened me with life, alleges filmmaker Sheetal Talwar

In a curious twist in the ongoing saga of Singh brothers' missing billions, an NRI film producer Sheetal Vinod Talwar has approached the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai alleging he has been threatened with life after his lawyers pursued repayment of $1.25 million paid supposedly towards Radha Soami Satsang chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon's treatment abroad. "I was coaxed into parting with $1.25 million towards Gurinder Singh Dhillon's treatment and allied expenses in 2015. Dhillon spoke to me twice to help with funds," Talwar told BusinessToday.In in a written response. Money was given to Hong Kong-based company Mega Brave Limited run by RSSB's Lakhi Samtani & Manoj Sabnani.

This is the second criminal complaint against the Baba and RSSB associates. Earlier, on Feb 5, Malvinder Singh had approached the Economic Offences Wing in Delhi accusing Baba Dhillon of threatening through lawyer Ferida Chopra that Malvinder would be eliminated. Malvinder had sought payment of Rs 8,742 crore towards money loaned to firms owned by Dhillon, his family and RSSB associates.

Dhillon did not respond to a detailed email seeking response to Talwar's allegations. Sources close to Shivinder have called the allegations "false" and "rubbish".

Talwar though is a National Film Award winning International film producer and angel investor. His first feature film 'Dharm' was acknowledged with the National Film Award. It premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Talwar has produced films such as 'Rann' starring Amitabh Bachchan, 'Mausam' with Shahid Kapoor, 'Rakta Charitra' starring Surya. Among international films, he produced 'The Joneses' starring Demi Moore, the Martin Freeman starrer 'The Eichmann Show', 'Romans' starring Orlando Bloom.

During Sunil Godhwani's tenure at Religare, Talwar launched India's first SEBI-registered film fund - Vistaar Religare.

In his complaint before the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai on 20 November, 2018, Talwar has alleged that in 2015, Sunil Godhwani and RSSB's Sharan Bhojwani introduced him to directors of a Hong Kong based company Mega Brave Limited-Lakhi Samtani & Manoj Sabnani. He was told Samtani and Sabnani were intimately connected to RSSB. When they found him reluctant to lend, Talwar says Dhillon spoke to him to assure that the money repayment should not be a problem as the borrowers were "extremely wealthy in their own right and it was only because of some immediate restrictions and his health that they were unable to transfer the said amount of $1.25 million".

The complaint filed by Talwar's lawyers Probus Legal alleges Dhillon "took advantage of Mr Talwar's faith and respect towards him and lured him into parting with such a huge amount of money". The petition says despite the fact that "the said advance was a short term loan, our client (Talwar) did not receive any money".

In his complaint before EOW, Talwar annexed an email he wrote to RSSB's Sharan Bhojwani on March 20, 2017, detailing the threatening call: "I am shocked at the turn of events. About 30 mins ago I got a call from a Delhi no. threatening me with dire consequences if I pursued the legal option at Hong Kong. I and my family at Delhi were threatened with physical harm if I did anything that troubled Babaji."

"I was told that Sunny (Sunil Godhwani) and Babaji could not make the payments as it (Religare) had hit the LERMS limit. And that I would be reimbursed when the fiscal began. The requests came from Sunil Godhwani, Sharan Bhojwani and Shivinder. However, I have not been paid the full amount till date inspite of repeated reminders. I have received life threats on phone when my lawyers pursued the balance payments," Talwar told BusinessToday.In in a written response.

"My various emails/calls reminding them about repayment fell into deaf ears and were ignored. This forced me to approach the EOW and take appropriate legal action", Talwar adds in his response to BusinessToday.In.