Filmmaker Raj Chakraborty has lodged a police complaint alleging that two men and a woman had tried to extort money from guardians of a few children posing as employees of his production house.

The three allegedly promised the guardians that they would get the children roles in Chakraborty’s films.

The complaint lodged with Kasba police station says the suspects had demanded between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh from the guardians after promising roles for the children.

“Before making the payment, one of the guardians became suspicious and dialled the phone number of an entertainment channel Raj Chakraborty’s production house is attached to. From there, the guardian learned that she was about to be cheated,” said an officer of the police station.

The alleged fraudsters had created a Facebook page and invited child artistes to auditions. The police learned during the investigation that the page was run by three persons.

“Once Chakraborty came to know about the matter, he contacted the police alleging that an attempt was being made to cheat people using his company’s name and to malign his production house, Raj Chakraborty Entertainment Pvt Ltd,” an officer said. The complaint named the three accused.

Chakraborty’s production house has its office at Chamber Mall on Rajdanga Main Road.

Based on his complaint, a case has been started against the three suspects.

“We are verifying the allegations made by the production house. If they are prima facie true, the suspects will be arrested,” the officer said.

Sources said investigators were talking to the guardians whom the trio were allegedly trying to cheat. The police are also trying to find out whether anyone had been cheated by them.

“This was a common method employed by fraudsters to cheat aspiring artistes and extort money from them,” the officer said.