The City Civil and Sessions Court yesterday granted anticipatory bail to Sunanda Shetty, mother of actress Shilpa Shetty, who is now in a private hospital in the Gulf for medical treatment.

Though a person seeking bail has to be personally present in the court, the advocate for Sunanda, H.H. Nagi submitted that his client, due to ill health, was being treated in a private hospital in the Gulf and therefore was unable to appear before the court. Nagi also showed her medical certificate in court.

Along with Sunanda, Shilpa's personal secretary Bhupender Singh Sachdev, was also granted bail by the court.

Both are facing charges of hiring mafia don Fazlur-Rehman to recover dues from a Surat-based industrialist Pankaj Agrawal for whom the actress had done a modelling assignment.

Vacation Bench judge, H.S. Deshpande set a bail amount of Rs 40,000 each and directed them to appear before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate at Surat on or before June 12 to seek regular bail.

Shilpa's father, Surendra Shetty, was also granted a transit anticipatory bail by a Mumbai court on May 17 until he appeared before a Surat court on May 28. The hearing for his bail application in a Surat court has been postponed to Friday.

Shilpa's secretary told Gulf News that Sunanda was suffering from blood pressure, hypertension and vertigo and has been unwell even when she attended the film festivals in Johannesburg and then Cannes with her daughter.

A case of extortion was filed against Shilpa's parents in the Umera police station in Surat for threatening Agrawal through the underworld don to get him to pay money owed to her.

Police say they have the taped conversation between Agarwal and the Shettys as clinching evidence since the industrialist is appealing to Sunanda to call off the gangster who has been threatening him. She allegedly says that the calls will automatically stop once the money is paid.

Meanwhile, Shilpa has appealed to the media to treat her family with fairness. In a press statement, she said: "I have chosen to remain silent not for the lack of conviction but for my family's dignity. My silence was being misconstrued and my family maligned. Now, I choose to speak."

She said her parents who have been law-abiding citizens have been made to look like criminals. "No one waited for our side of the story. What makes it worse is that it is too late for us to speak, as the matter is subjudice."

She said a section of the media, mainly electronic, "has gone ballistic and blown this incident out of proportion, without caring about the truth. It has been a harrowing experience for my parents and they have been subjected to harassment by the press. They have run from pillar to post to prove their innocence."

According to her, the family was going to take the matter to court but the tables were turned on them and "we were made to look like the villains".

Without knowing the facts or the history of the case, the media sat in judgment, she said, with only one side of the story. "Despite being the aggrieved party, we are being termed the aggressors, manipulators and villains."

She talked of how her parents have imparted the right values to her sister Shamita and and herself and "we look up to them. It breaks my heart to see them go through this bitter humiliation. At this age, they don't deserve this. My humble plea, with folded hands to the press and all those reading this, is please don't convict us before the court's verdict. Please put things in perspective. All I want is a little fairness."