Priya had lodged a complaint with the Bund Garden police station against her husband Ajay, father-in-law Ramkumar, mother-in-law Reeta, Nikhil Kapoor and his wife Sharmilee Kapoor on Thursday. Ramkumar and Ajay Agarwal did not appear in the court. Police Commissioner Jayant Umranikar said the father-son duo was absconding. "We will investigate the case properly. Security will be provided to the complainant if she seeks it," he said.

Priya claimed that her husband and in-laws subjected her to mental and physical harassment demanding huge sums of money, jewellery and a Mercedes car as dowry. The accused have been booked under various sections of the IPC and Dowry Prohibition Act.

Defence counsel Harshad Nimbalkar pleaded for anticipatory bail pointing at the delay in lodging the police complaint. "Priya left her marital house on January 30. But she took over a month to lodge a police complaint on March 6," he said.

"After leaving home, Priya attended three meetings with husband and in-laws to patch up the differences. These meetings were also video-recorded," he said.

Nimbalkar said his client did not take a Mercedes car as dowry. The car was purchased from Millenium Motors in January 2007 after payment of Rs 49 lakh through a cheque from the account of Brahma Builders in UTI bank. He said his client was paying an income tax of Rs 6 crore every year. "Hence, the allegations of him demanding a dowry did not make any sense."

While Priya's lawyer Shrikant Shivade sought rejection of the anticipatory bail arguing that sections under which the accused were booked are very serious. Shivade said Priya could not register a complaint soon after she left the house because her parents were suffering from medical problems.

Meanwhile, Priya and her mother Meenu Bali addressed a press conference at hotel Centre Park, on Friday morning. Priya is a native of the Netherlands. She married Ajay Agarwal on January 29, 2007. It was an arranged marriage.