Shilpa Shetty's father in judicial
custody till June 26

Surendra Shetty, father of actress Shilpa Shetty and accused in an alleged extortion case, was on Tuesday remanded to judicial custody till June 26 by a local court in Surat.

The bail plea of his wife and co-accused Sunanda was deferred till June 30 on health grounds.

Surendra urged for bail afresh and the matter will be heard on June 26. His bail plea has already been rejected twice.

Chief Judicial Magistrate R P Mehta turned down the police's request for extending Surendra's custody for a week and remanded him to judicial custody for two days.

Shetty was arrested on June 21 and was in police custody. During the three-day interrogation, police collected his voice sample to match with the ones recorded in a telephonic conversation with Pankaj Agarwal, owner of Prafull Sarees.

Surendra and Sunanda are facing the charge of hiring gangsters to recover Rs 8 million payable to their daughter Shilpa by Agarwal. The extortion threat is allegedly indicated in the telephone conversation, the police claimed.

Surendra urged for bail praying that there was a civil dispute between him and Agarwal and that telephone talks were manipulated to implicate him in the extortion case. He said he had fully cooperated with the investigations and denied having underworld links or criminal background.

In keeping with a court directive, Sunanda appeared in person and urged Chief Judicial Magistrate R P Mehta to defer the case as she was undergoing treatment in a Mumbai Hospital.

In a related development, the police questioned Surendra's former driver Dillip Palsikar, who allegedly hired gangsters at the instance of the accused.