INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - JULY - AUGUST - 2007
The Month that was ...

SC RELAXES MONICA'S BAIL CONDITION

THE Supreme Court has relaxed the bail condition of extradited former Bollywood actor Monica Bedi directing that she would not be required to deposit her passport. It cleared the decks for her release.

Monica Bedi had claimed that she would not be able to fulfil the bail condition imposed on her asking to surrender the alleged forged passport as it was lost.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R V Raveendran allowed her plea and asked the special CBI judge in Hyderabad to consider her release on bail.

It asked the regional passport office, Mumbai, to cancel the passport which was issued by it.

Additional solicitor-general Amrender Sharan opposed the plea of Bedi seeking lifting of the condition of surrendering the passport. In support of his argument, Mr. Sharan cited the number of passport issued by the regional passport office, Mumbai.

Senior Counsel K T S Tulsi appearing for Bedi submitted that she is not in possession of the passport. The passport was issued long time back which is not valid now, said Mr. Tulsi.

ASG refuted the submission of Tulsi that her passport must have expired by producing the records which showed that the passport was still valid.

However, the court took into consideration that she was not in possession of the passport and the passport issued to her can be cancelled. An affidavit that Bedi has lost her passport was filed by her relative.

Bedi had faced trial in Hyderabad and Bhopal for allegedly possessing forged passports. While she was sentenced to three years by the Andhra Pradesh high court, the Bhopal court had recently acquitted her in the case.

The apex court had granted bail to the former Bollywood actress in Hyderabad case. The high court had reduced the five years imprisonment awarded by the trial court to three years.

CBI had registered a case against her for possessing a passport from Hyderabad on forged documents in the name of Sana Malik. Madhya Pradesh police has registered a case against Bedi for securing a passport on the basis of forged documents in the name of Fauzia.