The Preity Zinta-Ness Wadia spat got more complicated on Wednesday, as the city crime branch sleuths began investigating a complaint lodged by the Wadia Group with the Mumbai Police that it had received five telephone threatening calls and a text message from an underworld gangster warning it that its “business will be in trouble” if the actress was harassed.
Acting on a complaint registered by a secretary of industrialist Nusli Wadia, father of Ness Wadia, with the NM Joshi Marg police station on Tuesday, the Mumbai Police top brass on Wednesday transferred the investigations into the case to the anti-extortion cell of the city police crime branch.
Police sources said that the caller identified himself as fugitive underworld gangster Ravi Pujari. “In all, five threatening calls were made to landline numbers and mobile numbers of the office and persons working for the Wadia Group,” a senior police official said.
A text message received simultaneously on his mobile by an aide of Ness Wadia read thus: “Don’t run around Preity Zinta. Give my message to Wadia. Otherwise his business will be in trouble”
Talking to media persons here on Wednesday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said: “We received a complaint yesterday, saying that threatening calls were received on Nusli Wadia’s office telephone and also mobile phones of two secretaries. I am handing over the investigations to the anti-extortion cell of the crime branch. We are registering the offence and probing the details of the telephone calls and a text message”.
Maria said that the functionaries of the Wadia Group had in all received five threatening telephone calls and that the number of the mobile phone from which the SMS message had been received was traced to Iran.
“From our voice bank, we are trying to match the voice in the telephone calls with the voices of underworld gangsters available with us in order to match the identity of the person who made the calls Similarly we are seeking the assistance of service providers in investigating the SMS message,” he said.
The five threatening telephone calls and a text message received by the Wadia group have provided a new dimension to the unpleasant stand-off between Preity Zinta and industrialist Ness Wadia, both co-owners of the IPl franchise Kings XI Punjab, over the allegation made by the Bollywood actress that Ness had grabbed her hand and abused her in full public view during the course of a match played at the Wankhede stadium here on May 30.
The complaint has been made at a time when the city police have already summoned her from los Angeles, where she is currently away, and record her statement with the Marine Drive police on Thursday. On her part, she has reportedly asked the police if it was okay with if she across her “supplementary statement” which is in addition to complaint she has already lodged with the police on June 12.
Preity’s lawyer has already indicated that the actress would like to tone down her allegation against Ness. Though Priety has invoked Section 354 of IPC (assault or criminal force to woman with an intent outrage her modesty) in complaint against her ex-boyfriend, her lawyer has gone on record saying that the actress did not mean that Ness molested her. The molestation charge, if proven, stipulates a maximum punishment of two years in jail or with fine.
There are also indications from the both the feuding sides that Priety and Ness might go in for an out of court settlement. Sources said that the lawyers from both the sides had sent out feelers to each other that they would not be averse to such a settlement under which the actress would settle her stake in Kings XI Punjab to Ness and shift her base to the United states.
Zinta had a close brush with underworld when she took a brave stand against the Indian Mafia in the case of producer Bharat Shah’s arrest. Preity was the only one who stood by her statement while others like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan retracted from their original statements. Preity received ‘Godfrey’s Mind of Steel Award’ for the unprecedented act against the Mumbai D-Gang. She also received threatening calls from the underworld while she was shooting for the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke in 2000. The actor told the sessions court in Mumbai that she received a call from a man who said, “Main bhai ka aadmi Razak bol raha hoon aur mujhe 50 lakh chahiye.”