One more held, cops decide to question Shilpa

Police say Padmanabhan is an accomplice of Dinesh Rai, who was arrested earlier in connection with the case. Preliminary investigations reveal that Padmanabhan accompanied Dinesh when the latter established contact with Ashraf, the gangster who made the calls to Prafful Sarees owner allegedly on behalf of the Shettys. Police say Dinesh, presently in the custody of Mumbai police, is a member of the Ashraf gang and takes care of his Mumbai operations.

According to police sources, Padmanabhan is a hotelier and is close to the Shettys. He will be presented before the judicial magistrate on Thursday where police will seek a 10-day remand. Highly placed sources in the police department say they are planning to present Shetty’s driver Dilip Palsekar as a witness for the prosecution as he is believed to be the man who contacted the underworld.

In another development, the Surat police decided to summon Shilpa Shetty for interrogation. A member of the investigating team said: ‘‘We need to speak to Shilpa about the time-frame for which the advertisement was to be used.’’ Surendra Shetty’s bail application will come up for hearing in the court of chief judicial magistrate R.P. Mehta on Thursday.