Click to play videoHyderabad: A court on Friday sentenced former actress Monica Bedi, the companion of deported underworld don Abu Salem, to five years' imprisonment after finding her guilty of using a fake passport
Retired Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police Abdul Satar and postman Gokari Saheb were awarded five years' imprisonment. Another accused Mohammad Yunus was given three years' jail term.
The special CBI court, however, acquitted Srinivas, a clerk with the Special Branch Police, and travel agent Noor Mohammad for lack of evidence.
Bedi and Salem were extradited from Portugal on November 11, 2005.
The CBI filed a case against Bedi under sections related to cheating and criminal conspiracy for procuring a passport using a fake name and address in Kurnool district in August 2001.
Salem and his first wife Sabeena Azmi too obtained passports under false names and addresses from Kurnool. Bedi's passport was issued in the name of Sana Malik Kamal and Salem got the passport in the name of Ramil Kamal Malik.
The fraud was detected in February 2002 when the Intelligence Bureau got a tip-off that Salem and Bedi had used fake passports during a trip to Dubai.
The passports were cancelled in March 2002 and airports in the country were alerted, but by then the trio had fled the country.
After prolonged extradition proceedings, Salem, one of India's most wanted criminals and an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, and Bedi were brought to India on November 11 last year.
The court, which examined 38 witnesses in the case, also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on Bedi.
Bedi was in December 2005 taken to Bhopal where a court is hearing a forged passport case.
Bedi is to appear before the Bhopal next month. Her lawyers have contended that there was no proof that she herself had applied for the passport under a fictitious name because they were issued when she was abroad.
Though Bedi has repeatedly pleaded for bail, the only relief she got from the Supreme Court was that the trial in her case should be speeded up.
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