Monica Bedi gets 5 years in jail
Ramesh Kandula
Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, September 29
A special CBI court here today sentenced a former Bollywood actress and associate of underworld figure Abu Salem, Monica Bedi, to five years in prison for obtaining passport using a fictitious name and address.

Three others, including retired assistant sub-inspector of police Abdul Sattar, revenue inspector Mohammad Yunus and postman Gokari Saheb were awarded three years’ imprisonment each for helping Bedi in procuring the passport with fake details.

The court, which had examined 38 witnesses in the case, acquitted Srinivas, a clerk with the special branch of the Police Department and Noor Mohammad, a travel agent, for lack of evidence.

Bedi, who was present in the court, remained calm as the judge pronounced her guilty. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on all four convicted.

She was extradited from Portugal on November 11 last year along with Abu Salem and had been lodged in a women’s prison at Chanchalguda here since then.

The judge said he would not consider the prison period she had served in Portugal. However, her time in Hyderabad prison for nearly 10 months would be taken into account for the purpose of fixing the sentence.

Bedi and Salem had obtained passports in August 2001 under false names and addresses from the local Regional Passport Office. Bedi’s passport was issued in the name of Sana Malik Kamal while Salem got the passport issued in the name of Ramil Kamal Malik.

The CBI had filed a case against Bedi under Section 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 12 of the Passport Act for procuring a passport on a fictitious name and address from Kurnool district. Her bad days have only begun as she has to face another passport forgery case pending against her in a Bhopal court. She would be taken to Bhopal next month to be tried in the case there.

The starlet, who acted in Hindi and Telugu films, failed to get bail in both cases, and the only relief she got from the Supreme Court was that the trial in her case should be speeded up.

Her lawyers contended that there was no proof that she herself had applied for the passport under a fictitious name because those were issued when she was abroad.

She, along with her dubious companion Abu Salem, had served three-year jail term in Portugal for travelling to that country on forged passport.

Bedi’s father, Dr Prem Kumar Bedi, who lives in Norway, had visited her in the prison here, as also her uncle Purushottam Lal Bedi, who lives in Hoshiarpur district in Punjab. However, no member of her family or friend was present today at the court.