Actress Monica Bedi Gets MP High Court Relief in Fake Passport Case.
Source – news18.com
Bhopal: In a major relief for film actress Monica Bedi, Madhya Pradesh high court on Monday upheld an earlier verdict of a Bhopal district court, which had exonerated the actress in a fake passport case.
The actress, who had an affair with jailed underworld don Abu Salem, had allegedly got her passport from Bhopal.
After being extradited from Portugal, the actress was tried at a Bhopal district court on charges of forgery, i.e. getting her passport prepared under a fake identity.
In 2007, the Bhopal Court had exculpated Bedi after not finding any evidence against her in the case.
Challenging the court order, the Madhya Pradesh government had approached the MP High Court with a review petition. On Monday, the HC dismissed the petition and upheld the district court verdict.
Earlier this year, Bedi had moved an application in the high court, pleading that the case had been pending in the court for the last 12 years and was stalling the issuance of a permanent passport for her.
Her lawyers claimed that there was no evidence against their client that she had fraudulently prepared a passport from Bhopal.
Arrested by Interpol from Lisbon, Salem and Bedi where extradited to India in 2005.
Salem was later convicted in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, while Bedi spent four years in prison, including two in Portugal.
Salem claimed to have married Bedi at a mosque in Los Angeles in 2000, but the actress had denied the claim.