Preeti Jain’s bail has now been extended till final hearing and disposal of her appeal.
Bombay High Court has suspended the Sessions Court’s three year conviction sentence of model Preeti Jain for conspiring to kill filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar. On April 28, a trial court had convicted Jain and two others for plotting to kill Bhandarkar. Jain’s sentence was suspended for a period of four years on the same day as she was granted bail by the court till May 25. Her bail has now been extended till final hearing and disposal of her appeal. Jain said that she had submitted bank statements of 2005 to prove her innocence.
“Bail granted to me by the Bombay High Court has been extended till final hearing and disposal of my appeal (which was admitted on 22nd May 2017). High Court has granted me three weeks to furnish surety. Judiciary and God are truly great! I have full faith in judiciary and law will take its own course,” said Preeti Jain.
“The Honourable Bombay High Court has admitted my appeal against the Sessions Court verdict. Out of the many grounds in the appeal, I had no financial resources to offer supari of 75,000 rupees. The Investigating Officer had submitted my bank statement of 2005 as Rs 550 was available in my bank account at the relevant time. No suspicious withdrawals were undertaken by me,” she said.
“Out of 51 witnesses who were examined in the trial, not a single witness has seen me with so- called conspirators and the prosecution failed to prove motive,” she added.
Jain said that the trial court has committed error in convicting her in her appeal against conviction.
“The trial court in its order has said the FIR was not properly recorded.
The “FIR filed against Jain was erroneous” and the prosecution had failed to establish a motive behind the crime,” said Jain’s lawyer.
In 2004, Jain had registered a complaint against Bhandarkar accusing him of raping her 16 times on the pretext of offering lead role in his movies. Bhandarkar had nonetheless termed the allegations as baseless and the Supreme Court had quashed the rape case against him in 2012.
According to the police the conspiracy came to light when she approached the Akhil Bharatiya Sena to recover a sum of Rs 40,000 she allegedly paid to Naresh Pardeshi for killing Bhandarkar.
