Saturday, October 15 2005 10:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Gangster-turned-politician, Arun Gawli is likely to be summoned next week in connection with the Preeti Jain case, wherein the starlet allegedly gave a contract to his aide to murder film director Madhur Bhandarkar, police sources said here yesterday (Oct 14, 2005).

Gawli, an independent MLA from Chinchpokli, had hit the headlines when he tipped off police last month about the murder plan that was allegedly hatched by Jain with his aide Naresh Pardesi, although in subsequent scientific tests Pardesi reportedly revealed that Gawli was in know of the plan and later allegedly conspired with the film producer to frame Jain.

The Agripada police, who are probing the murder conspiracy, want to record statement of Gawli in the backdrop of these revelations and had reportedly asked him to visit them yesterday.

"But the office of Gawli informed us that the MLA was busy in his constituency work and hence would visit police some time next week," a senior police official told PTI.

Gawli will be sent a fresh summons some time next week and called to record his statement, the official further said.

Police sources claimed that they have enough evidence to press charges of criminal conspiracy against Jain, who had levelled sexual exploitation charges against Bhandarkar last year.

What remains is to probe whether there was any substance in the clues of Gawli's allegedly involvement in the case, as is suggested by the scientific tests, police sources said.

Police investigations say that Jain allegedly conspired with Pardesi to eliminate Bhandarkar, paying Rs 70,000 to the latter.

So far, police has arrested four more persons apart from Jain and Pardesi, and have seized a country-made revolver and some cartridges which were allegedly to be used to eliminate Bhandarkar.

Meanwhile, Jain on October 5 alleged that the police has attempted to coerce her to turn approver in the case as they wanted to 'fix' Gawli. The allegations have been denied by the police.

While it was expected that the police would eventually attempt to nail down Gawli in the case, investigating officers have maintained that they do not have evidence at the moment suggesting the MLA's involvement in the case.

"But we do not rule out the possibility," police officials said, adding that another aspect of the move to question Gawli was to explore some loose ends in the case.

Bhandarkar, meanwhile, has been provided police protection in view of the alleged plot. After Jain's arrest, Bhandarkar claimed that he received anonymous calls some days ago and had even lodged a complaint to the police in this regard.