Father claims Avinash spent lakhs to kickstart Das’s career

Avinash Patnaik (22), who allegedly shot model Moon Das’s mother and uncle before turning the pistol on himself at her residence in Oshiwara last Thursday, had spent “several lakhs” in buying a flat in Kolkata for her, and another Rs 40 lakh in efforts to jumpstart her acting career in Mumbai, Patnaik’s father Bhupen Patnaik claimed. He also claimed that on Valentine’s Day this year, Avinash had transferred Rs 5 lakh to Das’s bank account in Mumbai.

Speaking to The Indian Express on the phone from Angul in Orissa, Bhupen Patnaik, deputy general manager with WESCO in Bhubaneswar, said, “We came to Mumbai, and heard a completely one-sided story from the police there. There was no way of verifying what had happened. We had never heard of Moon Das. We went to Bhubaneswar on the way back home (Angul), and recovered Avinash’s personal laptop.” He added: “On checking the laptop, I saw that Avinash (who ran a rice mill) had transferred Rs 5 lakh to Moon Das’s account on February 14 this year. He transferred the money to ICICI Bank’s Oshiwara Branch through an ICICI Bank cheque numbered 171975 and customer ID 502745156.”

Bhupen Patnaik added: “I have also found documents on his laptop to prove that Avinash spent several lakhs to buy an apartment in Kolkata in the name of ‘Moon Moni Das/ Kanan Das (Moon’s mother), C/O Avinash Patnaik…’. We have reason to believe that my son spent about Rs 60 lakh on this girl, swayed by his emotions.”

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Patnaik added: “Our own enquiries with some very close friends of Avinash in Bhubaneshwar revealed that he gave Rs 40 lakh to Romesh Sharma (Moon’s friend in Mumbai) to help Das get roles in some music videos and films. There are two photographs of Das and Avinash at a beach in the laptop. We think those were taken in Puri or Goa. His friends say she had visited him on September 24 and 25, and they stayed at Durga Hotel in Angul.”

Moon Das could not be reached for comment. Neither was Sharma (who had spoken to The Indian Express earlier in the day) reachable for a reaction to Patnaik’s claims.