Monica's uncle to engage lawyer for her
Chandigarh, November 19, 2005
IANS
After initially disowning her for her relationship with mobster
Abu Salem, relatives of disgraced starlet Monica Bedi have decided
to help her fight her case in the courts.
Sources in Hoshiarpur town of Punjab, near which is Monica's
village Chhabewal, said that her uncle Purshottam Bedi was likely
to go to Mumbai within a couple of days to engage a defence lawyer
for her.
Monica is facing charges of getting forged passports from Hyderabad
and Bhopal before leaving the country and joining Salem in other
countries.
The sources said that Monica's uncle had taken a loan of Rs100,000
from a local financer in Hoshiarpur to fight her case.
He had earlier disowned her and all her activities saying his
family had nothing to do with her.
The sources said that Purshottam Bedi had told fellow villagers
that Monica was not to be blamed for her current status as he
had earlier thought and that he would now help her.
Her uncle is an agriculturist of modest means and lives in Chhabewal
village, 10 km from Hoshiarpur city.
Monica was born in the same village in 1975 but her family immigrated
to Norway when she was just six months old. She had come to the
village only once in 1998 for her brother's wedding.
She is believed to have married Salem as his second wife but
she on Saturday denied in a Hyderabad court that she was ever
married to him.
Salem, one of India's most wanted criminals, is accused of having
masterminded the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts in which 257 people
were killed and 1,400 injured.
Salem and Monica were extradited November 11 from Portugal, where
they had been caught in 2002, after sustained efforts of the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
