Upasana Singh alleges CINTAA deposits were broken despite frozen accounts

The fight over who runs the Cine and Television Artistes' Association (CINTAA) has taken a fresh turn. Actor Upasana Singh, a former office-bearer of the body, alleges that the association's fixed deposits were broken and its money moved. She says this happened even though its bank accounts were supposed to stay frozen.

Singh says CINTAA keeps accounts and fixed deposits in five banks. When the previous committee was dissolved, with Deepak Parashar as treasurer at the time, the banks were told to keep the accounts frozen until a new committee legally took charge. Her side expected the accounts to reopen only after a court order confirmed which committee would run the body. When they recently won a round in the dispute and planned to write to the banks again, she says they found that one account had already been opened. Money from the deposits had been moved into it and spent in different places.

Singh asked how the deposits could be broken without first asking the members. She claims office staff helped get around the freeze by going to the bank with the association's stamp, email ID and office details and asking for the account to be opened through KYC. While describing this, she named actors Poonam Dhillon and Padmini Kolhapure, along with Paintal. She also alleged that people holding no official post had declared themselves the committee.

According to Singh, the money went out through several transactions, and it is still not clear how many deposits have been broken. She puts the total held in fixed deposits at around Rs 90 lakh.

Actress Nagma reportedly shared the concern and objected to artists' money being used to pay staff salaries. She is said to have pointed to a court hearing set for October 26, saying both sides should wait for the ruling and accept it, whichever way it goes.

Dhillon and Kolhapure have not responded to the latest allegations. Reports say the two had earlier denied any wrongdoing over CINTAA's functioning and finances. The claims remain allegations and have not been independently proven.