The Mumbai civil and sessions court on Friday charged model Priti Jain and her two aides Naresh Pardeshi and Shivram Das with allegedly conspiring to kill award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, and sentenced them to three years in prison.
Jain allegedly planned to murder Bhandarkar in September 2005, for which she sought help from Pardeshi, who is also an aide of underworld gangster Arun Gawli, and Das.
“Priti was shocked when she heard the judgement. In fact, everybody was shocked,” said her lawyer, Sujit Shelar. We are waiting for the judgement order and then, we will be filing an appeal in the high court,” he said.
“None of the 51 witnesses have deposed at any given point of time saying that they’ve seen both Priti Jain and Naresh Pardeshi together,” says Shelar. “Even the investigation officer, Sheila Saeel, admitted that she could not find any evidence in Priti Jain’s bank account from which the amount was allegedly given to Pardeshi to carry out the 'supari'.” He adds the money trail went blank. “There are so many lapses in this case,” he says. These were the defense’s arguments before the trial court.
Priti Jain was released on a cash bail of Rs 15,000. “This is an interim bail for four weeks and we will have to apply for an extension of the bail,” says Shelar.
When contacted, Jain said she is “going to be busy with the appeal in high court”. “I wish to concentrate on that,” she told THE WEEK. When pressed for a response, she said: “Yesterday I was convicted for three years in (the) so-called ‘supari’ matter and released on cash bail of Rs 15,000. I am filing (an) appeal in (the) Bombay High Court. I continue to have faith in the judiciary, God and myself!”
