Hitman says Bhandarkar paid to cancel contract

Naresh Pardeshi, the man allegedly given a supari by actress Preeti Jain to kill Madhur Bhandarkar, is understood to have said that the dire...

Naresh Pardeshi, the man allegedly given a supari by actress Preeti Jain to kill Madhur Bhandarkar, is understood to have said that the director had offered more money through gangster-turned-MLA Arun Gawli to get the contract cancelled.

Pardeshi allegedly said Jain had given him Rs 40,000 as advance to kill Bhandarkar. But Gawli had called him up, supposedly saying that Bhandarkar had promised him Rs 50,000 more than the actress’s offer to get the contract cancelled.

Pardeshi, said Mumbai police sources, made this claim during the narco-analysis test

conducted on him in Bangalore at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) on September 14. And that the statement has been taped.

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Additional Commissioner of Police (Central Zone) Subodh Jaiswal refused to confirm or deny Pardeshi’s claim. ‘‘I have no clue about this. I completely deny it,’’ Bhandarkar told The Indian Express.

Gawli could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. When The Indian Express went to his house around midnight, security guards at his house said he wasn’t in.

Meanwhile, police told a Sessions Court in Mumbai today that the brainmapping test conducted on Jain has revealed her ‘‘active role’’ in the conspiracy to kill Bhandarkar.

They also said that the lie-detector test was positive, and ‘‘there are some deceptive points in that test’’. Both tests were done on her on September 13 at FSL, Bangalore.

Alleged hitman held

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MUMBAI: The police on Wednesday produced in court Samir, who they claim was hired by Naresh Pardeshi at Preeti Jain’s behest to kill director Madhur Bhandarkar. With Samir alias Gulfam Mohammed Ibrahim Shaikh, the total number of arrests in the case has gone up to five.

The police said Samir had fled the city soon after Pardeshi’s arrest, but returned to his shelter in Worli on Tuesday. That’s when they arrested him. The court remanded Samir to police custody till September 30.

His remand application stated that he’s a sharp-shooter and used to keep a watch on Bhandarkar’s house. The police said they recovered an empty shell and Rs 12,500 from him. — ENS