The Mumbai police on Tuesday recorded the statement of ‘encounter specialists' Inspector Pradeep Sharma and Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak in connection with the ongoing probe into the purported conversation between actor Salman Khan and actress Aishwarya Rai.

Sharma and Nayak have been posted in crime branch since many years and Sharma heads one of suburban crime branch units that had an electronic surveillance system attached to it.

Crime branch sources said statements of the two officers was recorded to find out if they were aware whether the actor was under surveillance in 2001, when the conversation between Salman and Aishwarya is alleged to have taken place.

Sharma was also part of the team that probed the alleged underworld links of film financier Bharat Shah, and the investigators asked the inspector if the present conversation in controversy had originated then, police sources said.

Sharma and Nayak's statements came a day after police recorded statement of former crime branch DCP Pradip Sawant on the issue. Sawant, who has been booked under MCOCA in the Telgi fake stamps scam, was the second senior most official of the crime branch from 1999 to 2004.

Crime branch officials on the condition of anonymity said that while the forensic report of the voice samples of the two stars was awaited, investigators were trying to find out if there was leakage of information in the form of the tape from any of the crime branch men.

In the conversation, Salman had allegedly flaunted his underworld connections and warned Aishwarya to perform in a show organised by gangster Abu Salem abroad or face wrath of the underworld.