Shilpa’s dad stars in an extortion drama now

About eight to 10 months ago, Agarwal says, he received a telephone call from the actress’s mother Sunanda, who allegedly demanded Rs 2 crore for the modelling assignment. ‘‘However, I refused to pay as there was no written agreement between the two parties,’’ Agarwal told The Indian Express in Surat.

Agarwal claims he then received a notice from Shilpa’s lawyer demanding the sum but he refused to pay, this time through his legal consultant. That’s when, Agarwal claims, anonymous phone calls from the underworld began. ‘‘Shilpa ka mamla pata do (settle the Shilpa issue),’’ the caller had said. When Agarwal consistently refused to pay up, the caller gave him Shilpa’s father’s cellphone number.

‘‘So I called her father, who claimed he was not aware of the negotiations and that I should speak with his wife instead. I did so and she insisted that I pay the sum,’’ Agarwal says.

The threatening phone calls did not stop and the caller said things like ‘tapka denge and phod dalenge’,’’ Agarwal says. Eventually, the sum was settled at Rs 3 lakh after negotiations between Agarwal, the caller and Shilpa’s parents.

‘‘About a fortnight ago, my man went to deliver the money to a particular address in Surat but he told me that the police were there already. The police also assured me of my family’s safety and we lodged a complaint with the Umra police,’’ he says. Surat Commissioner of Police, V K Gupta said: ‘‘We received a tip-off about a month-and-a-half ago, about some Surat businessman recieving threatening calls from the underworld. We zeroed in on Agarwal. We followed their conversations and nabbed Imran alias Dinesh Shetty from Mumbai.’’

He says that Shetty was caught with money which was to be sent to Dubai, to Ashraf alias Uday Shetty. Shetty is at present in the custody of the Mumbai police in connection with some other cases, Gupta adds.