Monica Bedi to face day-to-day trial: Apex Court

New Delhi, Aug 17: The Supreme Court today ordered a day-to-day trial in the case in which Monica Bedi, estranged wife of mafia don Abu Salem, is facing trial for using forged passport with the directions that the trial shall be concluded within 2 months.

The court kept her bail application pending and adjourned the hearing till October 19,2006.

A Bench comprising Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice G P Mathur and Justice D K Jain also granted her liberty to ask for bail if the trial is not concluded within the time prescribed by the court.

Earlier Senior Council K.T.S.Tulsi appearing for the petitioner sought her release on bail on the ground that an accused cannot be subjected to double jeopardy for the same offence.She has already suffered four year sentence in Portugal for travelling on forged passport. She was in jail in Portugal since September 2002 and was ordered judicial custody by the courts in India on November 11, 2005 after having being extradited from Portugal.

She is facing two cases in India, one in Bhopal and the other in Hyderabad. Bhopal case has been investigated by the state of MP and the chargesheet has already been filed in the case after completion of the investigation. The other case is pending in Hyderabad which is being prosecuted by CBI.

The directions ordered by the Supreme Court today are for the Hyderabad case in which 13 prosecution witnesses out of 55 have already been examined. Additional Solicitor General appearing for the CBI opposed her release on bail on the ground that since she did not have any permanent address in India and has no property at all, chances of her escaping from the country were very high. Council for Monica Bedi however has pleaded that her custody is totally illegal.

Monica Bedi is facing allegations for procurring two passports in bogus names and travelling on them.In the Bhopal case she is impersonated as Fauzia and in Hyderabad case she used the name of Sanaa Mallik.The police is yet to recover the Bhopal passport.

The court however refused to pass any order on her plea for grant of bail for the time being. Her trial in the case has already been separated from Abu Salem who is also one of the ten accused in Hyderabad case.

UNI