A Surat court on Friday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Surendra Shetty, actress Shilpa Shetty's father, facing arrest in an extortion case registered against him and two others by the Gujarat Police.

Additional district and sessions judge K M Vin rejected the bail after prosecution opposed Shetty's plea on the grounds that there was prima facie evidence of his involvement in the alleged crime.

Acting on a police complaint, the court had earlier issued non-bailable warrants against Surendra Shetty and his wife Sunanda. Surendra and his wife had obtained provisional bail till May 28 and June 12 respectively from a court in Mumbai, which ordered them to seek regular bail in a Surat court.

According to the police, Shilpa's parents had hired a gangster to recover from an industrialist Rs 80 lakh due to their daughter, who had modelled for Praful Sarees some years back.

The police claimed to have recorded telephonic talks between a gangster and Pankaj Agarwal, the industrialist, as well as between Shilpa's parents and Agarwal, which revealed that extortion threat was indeed issued.

Surendra's counsel V B Raju denied his client was involved in hiring the underworld to recover the money due to Shilpa. He rejected alleged telephonic talk between Shilpa's parents and the victim saying it was 'manipulated'.

PTI