Court suspends sentence of 3 accused in fake passport case

Hyderabad, Sep 29 (UNI) A Special CBI court today suspended till October 27 the sentence of three-year rigorous imprisonment to the three accused in a fake passport case while Monica Bedi, alleged girlfriend of underworld don Abu Salem, would undergo five-year RI in the same case.

Earlier, the two accused Abdul Sattar, a retired Sub-Inspector of police and Gokari Saheb, a postman--were sentenced to five-year RI and Younos Khan, retired Revenue Inspector was awarded three-year imprisonment.

After changing the sections, the Judge reduced the imprisonment of Abdul Sattar and Gokari Saheb from five to three-year imprisonment.

The court has suspended the sentence of the three accused, who aided Monica in getting the fake passport, till October 27 for an appeal before the High Court after their Defence advocate filed a petition in the court immediately after the Judge delivered the verdict.

However, two others-- Noor-ul-Ahmed and G Srinivas-- were acquitted.

Senior Public Prosecutor T Venkata Ramanna said the accused were convicted under Sections 120 b (cheating), 419 (knowingly using forged documents) and 420 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) of the IPC.

Monica, the main accused in the case, was produced before the court amid tight security this morning. The remand period, she had served, would be considered as part of the five-year imprisonment.

She was, however, given permission to appeal to the High Court against the judgment in a month.

UNI AP HS KN1915