Mumbai: A key witness in the case of alleged nexus of Bollywood with underworld on October 18 turned hostile in a special court even as accused and film financier Bharat Shah urged for permission to go abroad from November 6 for a fortnight on a business trip.

Public prosecutor Rohini Salian declared Ratan Jain, director of Venus music company, hostile after he feigned ignorance about Pakistan-based gangster Chhota Shakeel.

Earlier, he had told police in a statement that he had talked to Shakeel on telephone at the instance of Rizvi.

Jain said that he was not aware of who Shakeel was but had read about him in newspapers.

The prosecutor will now cross-examine him on October 19.

Jain is the third witness to turn hostile in this case. Earlier, film financier Harish Sughand and Aftab Patel have not supported the prosecution.

In a related development, Shah urged the court through his lawyers Srikant Shivde and Vibhav Krishna to allow him to visit London for 15 days from November 6 to promote his film 'Devdas' and also to revive his diamond trading company.

Shah has also urged the court to issue direction to Mumbai police to release his passport for this purpose.

The court has directed the prosecution to file its say in this regard on October 21.

The prosecution's case is that Shah, producer Nasim Rizvi, his assistant Abdul Rahim Allah Baksh and Mohammed Shamshuddin had allegedly developed links with Shakeel to target film personalities for personal gains.

They have recorded their telephonic talks in this regard.

PTI