Two men allegedly hired by model-turned-actress Preeti Jain to kill director Madhur Bhandarkar were arrested here Tuesday.

Shivam Arjun Das and Satish Mohite were working for underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli's aide Naresh Pardesi who asked them to kill Bhandarkar at the behest of Jain, police said.

The duo was arrested from a central Mumbai residence. A locally made revolver and four cartridges were seized from them. An empty case of the cartridge apparently used to test-fire the revolver was subsequently seized from Pardesi's house, police said.

Police said the arrests would provide more leads for the interrogation of Jain and Pardesi, the main suspects.

Jain was arrested Sep 10 on charges of paying Rs.70,000 as contract money to Pardesi to eliminate Bhandarkar. Pardesi and Jain are currently in police custody.

In July last year, Jain had accused Bhandarkar of sexually exploiting her by promising her roles in movies.