Supreme Court orders cancellation of Monica's passport

New Delhi, July 23 (IANS) Monica Bedi, girlfriend of mobster Abu Salem, can now walk free with the Supreme Court ordering cancellation of her original passport Monday. Monica said the passport had been seized by authorities in Lisbon after her arrest there and could not be surrendered in Hyderabad for her release.

A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan ordered the Mumbai regional passport office to cancel her passport, bearing number B-0195737 and issued on June 24, 1999.

The bench, which included Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice R.V. Raveendran, ordered Bedi's release on bail on a personal bond of Rs.25,000 with a surety of the same amount.

Bedi had moved the apex court Friday seeking exemption from surrendering her original passport to secure her release from a Hyderabad jail as per an apex court order, which had earlier granted her bail.

As the bench took up Bedi's petition for hearing, Additional Solicitor General Amrinder Saran, doubting her claims that her passport had been seized in Lisbon following her arrest with Abu Salem, contended that her passport was still valid.

At this the bench suggested cancellation of her passport and it was accepted both by the government's law officer as well as Bedi's counsel K.T.S Tulsi.

She was acquitted last week by a Bhopal court in a fake passport case. A Hyderabad court had earlier convicted and sentenced her to five years jail for possession of yet another fake passport. The Andhra Pradesh High Court, however, reduced the sentence to three years.

While reducing her sentence, the high court dismissed her bail plea.

The apex court, to which she appealed against the high court order, granted her bail on condition that she surrender her passport to the judicial magistrate in Hyderabad.

Monday, the apex court ordered her passport cancelled.

Bedi was arrested along with Abu Salem at a Lisbon shopping mall Sep 18, 2002, following an Interpol red corner notice issued at the behest of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

She was brought back to India with Salem Nov 11, 2005.