New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday upheld
the conviction of actress Monika Bedi, girlfriend of
underworld don Abu Salem, in the fake passport case but
reduced her sentence to period of jail term she had already
undergone.
A bench of justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar
rejected Monika`s plea that she could not be convicted in
India as it would amount to "double jeopardy" since she had
been convicted by the Portugal court for the same offence.
The apex court, however, reduced her sentence to the
period of imprisonment she had already undergone (two-and-half
years).
The apex court passed the judgement while dismissing
Monika`s appeal challenging her conviction and five years
sentence awarded by a sessions court in Hyderabad and reduced
to three years by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The apex court also upheld the conviction of two other
co-accused in the case.
Monika Bedi, 35, was extradited from Portugal
alongwith Salem on the basis of an undertaking given by
previous NDA government that he would not be awarded death
penalty in India. The undertaking was given by then Deputy
Prime Minister L K Advani and then Minister of State for
External Affairs Omar Abdullah.
42-year-old Salem, a key accused in the 1993 serial bomb
blasts case in Mumbai, has been lodged in a Mumbai jail since
his extradition from Portugal in 2005. He is facing trial in
nine cases, including two for murders.
PTI
