The Bombay High Court has granted interim relief to Preeti Jain by extending the suspension of sentence and bail till June 7 in Madhur Bhandarkar case.
Bollywood starlet Preeti Jain heaved a sigh of relief after the Bombay High Court extended the bail granted to her after she was sentenced to three years jail 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. The bail granted by the trial court will expire on May 26. Preeti Jain said that Investigation officer had submitted her bank statements of 2005 wherein balance was just Rs. 550. Jain added that she has full faith in judiciary and law will take its own course.
“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,” said Preeti Jain.
“Out of 51 witnesses who were examined in the trial, not even a single witness has seen me with so- called conspirators and the prosecution failed to prove motive. Interim relief has been granted to me by extending the suspension of sentence and bail, till 7th June,” she added.
Jain’s appeal and application seeking extension of the bail granted to her came up for hearing before a vacation bench of Justice M S Karnik.
“The appeal is admitted. The order dated April 28 of the trial court granting bail to the applicant (Jain) is extended till June 7 when the matter will be listed before a regular bench,” Justice Karnik said.
Jain said that the trial court has committed error in convicting her.
“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.
