M A I N   N E W S

Monica grilled by CBI, sent to judicial custody
Ramesh Kandula
Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, November 12
Monica Bedi, Abu Salem’s companion, was today remanded to judicial custody till November 25 by a CBI special court judge here. Ms Bedi, who is facing charges for forging documents to secure passport at the Regional Passport Office here, was later sent to the Chanchalguda jail.

The underworld don, Abu Salem, and his companion Monica Bedi are wanted in Andhra Pradesh for securing passports under fictitious names and addresses from Kurnool district in 2001.

CBI officials, who grilled her in the morning, produced her at the residence of CBI special court judge Subrahmanyam at West Marredpally at about 3 pm. Ms Bedi was brought to Hyderabad late last night amid tight security and was lodged at the CBI office at Koti overnight. Ms Bedi’s lawyer, Ms Shabana Shah, who met her in prison, later said she would move a bail petition on Tuesday.

Earlier, a CBI counsel sought police custody for Monica Bedi for five days to question her in the case. The judge, however, posted the hearing on the plea to Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a team of police officials from Bhopal arrived here to seek Ms Bedi’s remand in a similar case of forged passport documents.

Salem can be tried only in 2 cases

Mumbai, November 12
The Mumbai police can put extradited gangster Abu Salem on trial in only two cases that are among the eight cases approved for extradition of the gangster from Portugal, sources said today.

The two cases which were approved are murder of developer Pradip Jain in 1995 and Ajit Dewani in 2001, both of whom were murdered allegedly at the behest of Salem, sources added.

Dewani was secretary to film stars Manisha Koirala and Aftab Shivdasani and was murdered for allegedly opposing the extortion threats of Salem.

Interestingly, the Gulshan Kumar murder case of 1997, in which the T series music brand owner was shot dead in Mumbai, is not among the eight cases, although the case attracted wide media and public attention for the alleged involvement of Salem, absconding music director Nadeem and film producer Ramesh Taurani.

“At present these are the only two cases under which we can try Salem. For the rest we will have to consult the CBI,” Deputy Commissioner Dhananjay Kamalakar of Mumbai crime branch told PTI here today.

Mumbai police has 30 cases registered in which Salem is the prime accused, and after his extradition, they were hopeful of custody of the gangster in many of them to further the investigations.

The important among the 30 cases being the attack on film producers Rajiv Rai and Rakesh Roshan, threats to several film personalities and some extortion cases involving big producers and real-estate developers. — PTI