SC issues notice to CBI in Monica Bedi case

New Delhi, Apr 27 (UNI) The Supreme Court today issued notices to CBI on a petition filed by filmactor Monica Bedi challenging Andhra Pradesh High Court judgement reducing her sentence from five years to three years in a forged passport case instead of releasing her forthwith.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice R V Ravindran ordered that the petition will be heard on May 17 along with other petitions filed by her seeking bail in another case pending in Bhopal.

Monica, wife of mafia don Abu Salem, was sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Court in Hyderabad for using forged passport but the sentence was subsequently reduced to three years by Andhra Pradesh High Court on an appeal by her.

In her petition filed in Supreme Court, she is seeking release on the ground that she has already undergone the sentence initially in Portugal from where she was extradited to India in November 2005 and has been in jail since then.

The Court had also issued notice to CBI asking as to why she should not be granted bail.

In Bhopal too, the apex court had already indicated that if the trial was not concluded expeditiously, then she might be released on bail.

In both the cases, she had contended that she could not be subjected to double jeopardy for the same offence and that she had already been in jail since 2002 when she was arrested by Portugal authorities.

She had also maintained that the passport was not in her handwriting and did not carry her signatures which was confirmed by the reports from the experts.

UNI