By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
Hoshiarpur (Punjab) : Just five years after she brought “shame” to her village and family in Punjab’s green hinterland by being caught in Portugal with mafia don Abu Salem, former starlet Monica Bedi is headed for a smoother ride back to her ancestral village Chabbewal.
With two court cases of passport forgery going in her favour in recent months, relatives of the don’s beau expect her to return to Chabbewal, 10 km from here on the highway to Chandigarh.
“I am leaving for Hyderabad. I will consult her lawyer there. Her father Prem is also reaching Hyderabad. We will decide the next course of action after securing her release,” Monica’s uncle Purshottam Bedi said Tuesday.
Monica, who faces a three-year sentence in one of the cases against her, may have to spend over a month in prison before she is able to walk free forever. But her lawyers are seeking an exemption from the court in Hyderabad on the ground that she spent time in prison in Lisbon (Portugal) before her extradition to India and want that period to be counted in her term here.
The Bedi family in the village, which is reasonably well off in this non-resident Indian (NRI) dominated area of Punjab, expects that Monica will be spending time in the family house here “as she has nowhere else to go”.
“Where else will she go?” asked her uncle as he and other relatives prepare to welcome the infamous daughter back home. Her uncle had disowned her after she was arrested in 2002.
However, other residents of the village, with a population of around 5,000 and where everyone knows everyone else, are a bit sceptical of her return.
“She brought bad name to our village because of her links with Abu Salem. Now she has been let off in the court cases. I don’t know exactly how to react but we will not disassociate with her now. Maybe she has changed and needs us now,” said a middle-aged villager, unwilling to be identified so as not to upset the Bedi family.
Monica’s uncle, who with other family members had migrated to Norway two years ago, returned to the village five months ago.
The former Bollywood starlet, who was once cast with stars like Sanjay Dutt and Govinda, was born Jan 18, 1975 in Chabbewal. Her father Prem Bedi, a registered medical practitioner in the village then, migrated to Norway with his family when she was only a few months old.
Monica had visited the village in 1998 for a few days during the marriage of her brother Bobby. Many people from the area came to see her then because of her Bollywood connection.
The Bedi family still has agriculture land in the village. Last year, a sect of Nihang (warrior) Sikhs from Tarna Dal had volunteered to help Monica in fighting her legal battles and had even offered to provide her physical security.