Actress Shilpa Shetty’s father Surendra Shetty on Saturday admitted to Umra Police that he had spoken to Ashraf alias Uday Shetty of the Fazal-ur-Rehman gang nine times over the telephone. But police said Surendra insisted that he was unaware that Ashraf had underworld connections.‘‘Surendra came forth with the admission after Surat Police confronted him with details of both incoming and outgoing calls made from his cellphone,’’ officials said. One of the officials investigating the matter said: ‘‘Even his lawyer was unaware that Surendra had spoken to Ashraf. We had proof of his conversations with Ashraf and the mobile printouts have put him in a fix.’’Meanwhile, the order on Sunanda Shetty’s bail is expected to be delivered on Monday. Surat Police wanted a day’s custody to grill Sunanda as they suspect that she was privy to certain important matters.Officers investigating the case said they had got crucial leads through the interrogation of Surendra’s driver Dinesh Palsekar last Thursday. The underworld nexus in the case is getting murkier with new names being added. The name of Purshottam Solanki, BJP MLA from Ghogha, too surfaced during Surendra’s interrogation on Friday.Even before the Shettys allegedly used the services of Rehman to settle their pending dues from the owner of Prafful sarees, Pankaj Agarwal, they got in touch with Solanki, former minister for Fisheries. An official: ‘‘During his interrogation, Surendra admitted to contacting Solanki.’’ ‘‘It was after Solanki refused to take up the job that the Shettys turned to Rehman.’’Confirming this, Solanki said: ‘‘I remember speaking to Surendra once two years ago. I told him that whenever I visit Surat, I will speak to somebody there and try to sort the matter amicably,’’ adding: ‘‘I advised them to seek legal help since they said the ad was supposed to be only for a year and the saree firm had been using it for several years. However, they never called me again, so I did not bother.’’
