Monica Bedi gets back her money

Mumbai, December 05: Monica Bedi, Bollywood actress and former girlfriend of extradited gangster Abu Salem, will finally have some big money to spend. The CBI, which froze Bedi’s seven bank accounts in 2002, has decided to defreeze them with immediate effect.

In an affidavit filed in the Bombay high court, additional superintendent of police Pramod Manji said: “During investigation, the CBI-STF, Mumbai, did not find evidence that the money lying in Bedi’s seven bank accounts belongs to Abu Salem.”

Earlier, the court had directed the CBI to explain why Bedi’s bank accounts were not released despite an order of the Bhopal magistrate court.

Niteen Pradhan, Bedi’s counsel, said: “They [the government] found nothing in her account. She is not even an accused in the blasts case. She has spent five years in jail [in a fake passport case], although she was convicted only for three years.”

The amount in these accounts has not been disclosed. The accounts were seized under the provisions of Tada.

–Agencies–