Wadia Group files complaint alleging threat from underworld

MUMBAI: In a new twist to the Preity Zinta-Ness Wadia episode, the Wadia group has filed a police complaint claiming they received threatening calls and a text message from an underworld don warning that their "business will be in trouble" if the actress was harassed.

A secretary to industrialist Nusli Wadia received calls on Monday on his cell phone from a person who claimed to be fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari after which he filed a complaint with N M Joshi Marg police station yesterday, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mahesh Patil said.

"Don't run around Preity Zinta. Give my message to Wadia. Otherwise his business will be in trouble," said a text message quoted by Patil, which was allegedly received by Nusli Wadia's aide from the gangster who was said to be living abroad.

The Secretary's name has been withheld by the police. Patil did not clarify if the phone belonged to the secretary or one of the members of the Wadia family.

The complaint has now been transferred to the anti-extortion cell of the crime branch to ascertain the veracity of the caller's claim of being Ravi Pujari and from where it was made.

Nusli Wadia's elder son Ness is locked in a bitter feud with Zinta, his former girlfriend, who has accused him of abuse and molestation during an IPL cricket match on May 30 in full public view, a charge the Bombay Dyeing group scion has rejected as "false and baseless".

Marine Drive police is probing the case filed under various sections of IPC on the basis of a written complaint by Zinta last Thursday.

The two had ended their courtship a few years ago, but continued to co-own IPL team Kings XI Punjab along with some others.

No Wadia group spokesperson was immediately available for comment.