Hyderabad/Mumbai, November 19
Former Bollywood actress Monica Bedi, who was arrested in a passport forgery case, said here today that “she is single and prefers to be addressed as Miss Monica”.
Bedi, the girlfriend of extradited gangster Abu Salem, was produced before the Special Judge for the CBI, Mr C.V. Subramanyam, who remanded her to judicial custody till November 25.
“My name is Monica Bedi,” she said when the Judge asked her name. Next the judge asked her what was her husband’s name, to which Bedi said: “I am single and Miss”. She was taken to Chanchalguda jail by the police amidst tight security.
A report from Mumbai said one of the lawyers of Salem today sparked off a controversy by moving a special TADA court, urging for withdrawal from the case on the ground that the CBI had “threatened to have him removed” through Salem.
The designated Judge, Mr P.D. Kode, asked the CBI to file a reply on November 22 on the application moved by Salem’s lawyer O.A. Siddiqui.
The court also refused to allow the lawyer to withdraw from the case and asked him to wait till November 23 when Salem would be produced for remand.
Mr Siddiqui alleged that the CBI had informed Salem’s other lawyer Ashok Sarogi that his client would dance to the tune of the agency and he would say whatever they wanted him to say.
He claimed that the CBI wanted them to withdraw and had even threatened to have the lawyers removed through Salem.
As of now, Salem is defended by Mr Siddiqui and Mr Sarogi.
A special court of TADA today also allowed Abu Les, Salem’s brother, to meet him in the CBI custody for 15 minutes.
Mr Siddiqui prayed that Les was Salem’s brother and had come down from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh to meet him.
Meanwhile, the Indian government is now pressing for the extradition of Samira Jumani, the first wife of the gangster.
Samira, who married Salem in Mumbai in the early 1990s, is separated from him and lives in New Jersey. The CBI has informed the Union Home Ministry that Samira manages Salem’s business interests in the USA.
