Surat, July 02: The hearing on a fresh bail application of Surendra Shetty, father of Bollywood actressShilpa Shetty, in an alleged extortion case will be taken up in a local court today. District and sessions judge K M Vin posted the hearing for July 2 after Surendra`s advocate Kalpesh Desai submitted he had to "collect some necessary documents pertaining to the case from the lower court". This is Surendra`s fourth bail plea. Two pleas were rejected by the Surat court and one by the Gujarat High Court earlier on grounds that "prima facie" evidence was available to show his involvement in the extortion case. Umra police had registered a case against Shilpa`s parents - Surendra and Sunanda - for allegedly "hiring" a gangster to extort Rs 80 lakh from Surat-based Praful Saree owner Pankaj Agrawal. The amount was reportedly payable to Shilpa for an ad-film she had done for Praful Sarees in 1998.
A Surat court had yesterday deferred till July four the bail plea of Sunanda Shetty on health grounds.
Sunanda and Surendra obtained transit bail from a Mumbai court which asked them to seek regular bail in a Surat court as the case was registered in Gujarat. Accordingly, both filed regular bail petitions.
Bureau Report