Wednesday, September 21 2005 16:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Adjourning the bail plea of aspiring Bollywood actress Preeti Jain and her associate till September 23, a local court today (Sept 21, 2005) extended their police custody until then in a case of conspiracy to kill filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar.

The other accused is Naresh Pardesi, aide of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli who had allegedly taken 'supari' (contract money) from Jain to kill Bhandarkar.

In a related development, co-accused Gufran Mohammed Ibrahim Shaikh alias Sameer, arrested last night in the same case, was today produced before the same court which remanded him to police custody till September 30.

The bail application of Preeti and Pardesi came up for hearing today but the court adjourned it till September 30.

Police said lie detector tests performed on Preeti Jain revealed deception in some of her replies to important questions.

Defence lawyer Nilesh Pawaskar argued that no case was made out for the custody of Jain and Pardesi.

The investigation officer told the court that three more persons had been arrested since the last remand of the accused and weapons recovered from them hence there was a need to grant further time to police for investigations. The Metropolitan Magistrate A V Shete remarked that full opportunity should be given to police machinery for investigation and hence it was necessary to extend the custody of the accused.