MUMBAI, July 28 -- Acting guru Kishore Namit Kapoor-whose students include Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Allu Arjun-has accused his longtime accountant of betraying his trust and siphoning off nearly Rs.43 lakh from his institute and personal accounts. The Versova police have registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against the accused, identified as Pravin Shrivastav, under IPC sections 406, 408, and 420. Kapoor, 76, a veteran actor and one of the most well-known acting teachers in the country, has been running the Kishore Namit Kapoor Acting Institute from a bungalow in Four Bungalows, Andheri, since 2000. The institute has trained hundreds of aspiring actors in four batches every year, each with around 40 students. The roots of the alleged fraud date back to 2010, when a young aspiring actor named Prashant Shrivastav enrolled in the institute. After completing the course and failing to land acting work, Prashant began assisting Kapoor with bookkeeping and administrative tasks. In 2015, citing the death of his father, Prashant left for his village but recommended his younger brother Pravin for the role. Pravin, police said, soon became a trusted fixture in Kapoor's life-managing not just the institute's accounts, but also handling Kapoor's and his wife's personal finances, credit cards, and bill payments. For several years, everything appeared to be in order. It wasn't until 2023 that Kapoor began to suspect something was amiss. He noticed a sharp drop in student enrolments. When he asked Pravin about it, he was told that aggressive advertising campaigns had been rolled out across YouTube, newspapers, and social media platforms like Facebook. However, Kapoor's instincts told him otherwise. He sent a staff member to an advertising agency in Kandivali, only to be told that not only had no such advertisements been placed-but the agency was still owed money from past dealings. Further inquiries revealed a disturbing pattern. Several bills had gone unpaid-including for electricity, water, internet, stationery, and even the institute's rent. Pravin repeatedly claimed there were no available funds. By September 2023, Pravin had disappeared altogether. His phone was switched off and he stopped coming to work. When Kapoor's staff checked the institute's computers, they found that all accounting data had been wiped clean. A deeper audit revealed that over two years-from April 2021 to September 2023-Pravin had allegedly been systematically withdrawing money from Kapoor and his wife's bank accounts and using the funds for his own benefit. "He had access to everything-bank accounts, credit cards, online payment gateways. He used that trust to his advantage," said a police officer from Versova police station. The accused reportedly continued to promise he would return the money, but no repayments were made. After months of silence, Kapoor approached the police and filed a formal complaint. Police have launched a search for Pravin Shrivastav, who remains absconding. Officers are also working to recover deleted data from the computers and trace the money trail through bank transactions....