Friday, September 23 2005 16:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Adjourning the bail plea of aspiring Bollywood actress Preeti Jain and her associate till September 26, a local court today (Sept 23, 2005) remanded them to judicial custody till October five 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.

Both the accused urged for bail and the court decided to hear their plea on September 26. Seeking bail, they said the investigations were over and police had recorded their statements besides subjecting them to scientific tests.

The prosecution today sought their police custody saying they wanted to probe further.

However, defence lawyer Nilesh Pawaskar opposed their custody saying there was no development in the probe since the last remand and so further custody was not justified.

The magistrate A V Shete perused police dairies and said he was satisfied that there was no justification to remand the duo to police custody.

Earlier, Jain had registered a case with Versova police against Bhandarkar alleging that he had sexually molested her on the pretext of giving her a role in films and had thus cheated her.

Bhandarkar was later granted anticipatory bail by the court but Jain challenged it in high court saying it should be cancelled. However, the court turned down her plea.