Surat, Nov 05: Police today filed chargesheet against Surendra and Sunanda Shetty, parents of actress Shilpa Shetty, and three others in an alleged extortion case, paving way for the commencement of trial in a local court. All the five accused are charged with allegedly hiring goons to recover Rs two crore dues of the actress from a saree manufacturer Pankaj Agarwal. The chargesheet was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magisrate R P Mehta.

Besides Surendra and Sunanda, other accused charged with aiding and abetting the crime are former driver of Shetty family, Dilip Palsekar, hotelier L Padmanabhan and Dinesh Rai. According to police, Shilpa's parents had allegedly hired gangsters owing allegiance to Malaysia-based Fazal-ur-Rehman to recover the money due to the actress from Agarwal for working in an ad film in 1998.

Police claimed to have in their possession tape recorded telephonic talks between Shilpa's parents and Agarwal which reveal that he was threatened.


Police have also obtained sample of voices of the accused to match them with the ones figuring in the alleged conversations. The samples have been sent to central forensic laboratory for verification.

Both Sunanda and Surendra have been granted conditional bail in the case. Umra Police had registered a case against them for allegedly "hiring" gangster to extort money from Agrawal.
Bureau Report