Except Preity, everyone turned hostile

Except actress Preity Zinta, all the 13 film personalities in the case of alleged Bollywood-underworld nexus turned hostile. The highlights of their deposition are:

Preity Zinta: She admitted having received a threat from a Chhota Shakeel gangster for extortion but said she dismissed it as a crank call. The actress said that she and Sanjay Dutt shared a common secretary Pankaj Kharbanda to whom she disclosed the threat received by her. He may have told about it to Sanjay Dutt. In any case, the entire Bollywood came to know about it, she told the court.

Sanjay Dutt: He denied having talked to Shakeel on telephone on November 14, 2000, from a hotel in Nashik. He also refuted allegations of police that he had pleaded with Shakeel to spare Preity Zinta from extortion threat. When the alleged talk was played before him in the court, Sanjay said he had consumed alcoholic drinks on that day and therefore did not remember with whom he talked.

Shah Rukh Khan: He denied having received threat from Chhota Shakeel directly. He also refuted allegations about receiving friendly calls from Shakeel. He denied the allegation of police that he had talked to Shakeel at the instance of producer-accused Nasim Rizvi and his assistant Abdul Rahim Allah Baksh.  Khan denied that he was won over by financier-accused Bharat Shah and therefore he was falsely deposing before the court. He also denied that Shah and others in the film industry used to call him Haklya (the word Haklya figured in alleged telephonic talk between Shah and Shakeel).

Salman Khan: Salman Khan denied he had received threats from any quarter to act in Chori Chori Chupke Chupke and also failed to identify accused Abdul Rahim Allah Baksh in the court.

Kishen Kumar: The brother of Gulshan Kumar resiled from his police statement about his offer to acquire the music rights of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke.

Rakesh Roshan: He admitted that Rizvi had made him talk to Shakeel about getting dates of his actor son Hrithik for film shootings but said he did not know who Shakeel was. The film maker said he had plainly told Shakeel that it would not be possible for his son Hritik to spare dates as he was occupied for the next two years. However, he denied allegations that Shakeel had threatened him on telephone to cooperate or else face death. Roshan admitted that he was attacked on January 21, 2000. The film maker denied that Shah, Rizvi and others in the Bollywood used to call him taklya (the word taklya figures in alleged telephonic conversation).

Mahesh Manjrekar: He denied having talked to Chhota Shakeel on telephone in the company of Sanjay Dutt from a hotel in Nashik. He also denied having told Shakeel that he wanted to make a film on his life.

Kumar Mangat Pathak (secretary of Ajay Devgan): He denied that Shakeel had threatened him to postpone the release of Ajay Devgan's film `Raju Chacha' as it was clashing with Shakeel's film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke. Earlier, he had lodged a police complaint to this effect but denied it in the court.

Ratan Jain denied that he had talked to Shakeel on telephone over music rights of the film.

Court convicts Bharat Shah, two others