Police on Thursday was non-committal on the results of the scientific tests on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli's former aide, Naresh Pardesi, in which he is allegedly quoted as saying that filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar paid money to Gawli to fix starlet Preeti Jain in the murder conspiracy.
Preeti Jain admits to having paid money to kill Bhandarkar
Police said they are yet to come across an evidence suggesting involvement of filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar to fix up Bollywood starlet Preeti Jain in the murder conspiracy allegedly hatched by her with Pardesi to eliminate Bhandarkar.
"As of today, there is no involvement of Bhandarkar in the case," Joint Commissioner of Police Arup Patnaik said in Mumbai commenting on media reports.
Preeti Jain non-cooperative: Authorities
Media reports quoted results of the narco-analysis test performed on Pardesi at Central Forensic Science Laboratory,
Bangalore, which said Pardesi admitted that Bhandarkar paid money to Gawli to fix up Jain since she had charged him of sexual exploitation last year.
Bhandarkar told PTI that the allegation was 'baseless' and he was ready to cooperate with the police on the issue.
JCP Patnaik, who is supervising the Jain-Pardesi case, told reporters that although the reports of scientific tests
had arrived, it would take at least a fortnight to evaluate them and decide the future course of action.
I'm very disturbed: Madhur Bhandarkar
"Reports just give you leads; they are indicative and are not a final word," Patnaik said, adding that any information
had to be corroborated by sufficient evidence.
He said it was too premature to say whether Gawli and Bhandarkar would be called for questioning in the case.
"The investigation team has its own strategies and planning. And we will work accordingly," he said.
When asked if the police smelt fishy when a former gangster tipped them off about a murder conspiracy, Patnaik said the case was being probed on its merits.
Bhandarkar granted securty cover
But he informed that there have been several complaints of extortion against members of Gawli's Akhil Bharatiya Sena
and the Akhil Bharatiya Kamgar Sena, and they were being independently probed.
Naresh Pardesi, he said, was appointed as 'shakha pramukh' or unit in-charge of the Worli unit of ABS on May 6 but was summarily removed without reason on May 25.
Starlet Preeti Jain was arrested by police earlier this month on a tip-off by Gawli that she had given 'supari' (contract) to his former aide Pardesi to kill Bhandarkar, whom she last year charged of sexually exploiting her.
The duo have been subjected to lie detector and brain mapping tests, while Pardesi was asked to undergo the narco-analysis test.
