Monica: Reel to real

Hyderabad, Sept. 30: Pretty starlet, gangster’s “girlfriend”, qaidi no. 103 — it has been a long, tortured road for the girl who once played a prisoner on reel.

A day after Monica Bedi was convicted in a passport forgery case, officials of a Hyderabad jail, where she has spent the last 10 months as an undertrial, were getting ready to host their star convict.

“She will be identified as qaidi no. 103. As an undertrial she was exempted from jail regulations like dress code, manual labour and regimentation. Now things will be different,” said additional inspector-general of prisons M.R. Ahmed.

“She is a frugal eater and so food might not be a problem for her,” he added.

If the verdict — five years in jail for the fake passport in the name of Sana Kamal Malik — left Monica shaken, the Abu Salem link drew an angry response.

“I am no one’s girlfriend. I am an independent individual,” she had lashed out hours after the verdict from the CBI court.

In November last year, soon after she and Salem were brought back to India from Portugal, Monica had declared herself as Miss Monica, not the wife of the don as the CBI contended. Thereafter, she was referred to as the jailed gangster’s girlfriend.

Monica’s lawyer Pradip Kumar said the former actress — who played a prisoner in Taj Mahal, a Telugu film — protested her innocence before being taken back to the Chanchalguda jail. “I have neither signed the passport application nor was I present in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) to receive the passport,” he quoted her as saying.

Both the CBI and the court rejected her contention, saying the passport was found on her and that she had used it to get away from India.

CBI counsel Venkataramana said the charges under the passport act were dropped as part of an agreement with Portugal at the time of her extradition. “The Indian government had given a commitment that she will not be charged with possession of a fake passport,” he said.

Monica was convicted under Sections 419 and 420 (cheating and abetment) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Venkataramana said Monica has already served two years in a Portugal jail and if the passport charge was slapped on her, under international law she might have had to spend many more years behind bars in the country of her capture.

In the Chanchalguda jail, an official said Monica, who has been moved to the convicts’ barracks from the undertrial section, has been asked to work in the tailoring and embroidery units.

The jail authorities also feel they can use her for promotional activities.