By Subhash K. Jha, IANS

The latest twist in the Preeti Jain - Madhur Bhandarkar fight-to-finish would have even Agatha Christie scratching her head in bewilderment.

Bhandarkar paid gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli Rs.50,000 to expose in the media Jain's plot to eliminate him (Bhandarkar), according to a news report.

"This is so absurd I don't know whether to laugh or cry," Madhur told IANS. He also denied knowing Gawli.

"Imagine, I am being counter-accused, after a news report that said that hired killers carried out a 'dry run' at my house to eliminate me!

"When my life is in danger and they have hired killers to eliminate me, I go to Gawli and say, 'Do one thing, take this Rs.50,000 an expose her.' This doesn't make any sense. If I had a whiff of the plot to kill me, I'd run to police. Why would I go to Gawli?

"Now that the lie-detection test has disproved Preeti Jain's version, her people must have come up with this," he claimed.

"Personally this theory that I paid Gawli doesn't bother me. The stress I've gone through in the last one year is something only I know. It isn't easy for a man to keep going to the cops and the court. I'm a filmmaker, not some criminal.

"For the last eight months, I've been working on the script of 'Corporate'. I hardly have time to meet my mother and wife. I totally deny knowing Arun Gawli. Where do I have the time for all this?

"If killers are hired to eliminate me, will I go to the supposed killers with my own price? Is there a bidding going on over my life? I am worried about what repercussions all this will have on my family," the filmmaker said.

Madhur is going to be provided with police protection soon. "Until then, I am restricting my movements. I am impatient to start my film 'Corporate'."

He has consulted his lawyers about the latest twist in the story and they have assured him that the allegation about talking to Gawli is not a cognisable offence.

"But I have never talked with him, I have never met the man," Madhur is adamant.