Forum : Naive victim of circumstances or Consciously wrong decision maker?

Monica Bedi (born January 18, 1975, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, India) is an Indian actress and companion of gangster Abu Salem. Monica's parents migrated to Norway when she was 10 months old. They run a garment store in Norway.

In September 2002, she was arrested along with Abu Salem by the Lisbon police for entering Portugal with forged documents. After years of legal battle, they were deported to India in November 11, 2005, after India promised Portugal that Salem would not receive death sentence.

On 29th September 2006, an Indian Court convicted Monica Bedi for passport forgery. CBI had filed a case against Bedi under section 420 (cheating), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and section 12 of the Passport Act for procuring a passport on a fictitious name.

Bedi was acquitted of all criminal charges by a Bhopal court on July 16 2007 due to lack of evidence against her. Yet another case for possessing a passport from Hyderabad on forged documents in the name of Sana Malik is pending in a Hyderabad court. The Hyderabad Court however denied her bail in the case as she failed to produce her original passport. Monica said she lost her passport in Dubai. On July 25 2007 she was released from the Chanchalguda Central Jail and was received by her father Prem Kumar Bedi. She said that she planned to make a comeback to films and claimed to be getting offers from both Bollywood and the Telugu film industry.

Monica Bedi's Marriage

Monica Bedi is married to Abu Salem

Monica Bedi, during her 21-day appearance on the TV reality show Bigg Boss, may have gone to town claiming she never married gangster Abu Salem, but this newspaper has in its possession documents which show she not only married Salem for a mehr of $5,000, but even wrote very filmi letters to him while both were in Portuguese jails.

In fact, Bedi very clearly tells the police, according to the Portuguese police report, that they should not touch the $5,000 as the money is her “marriage money” and is dear to her. Bedi, along with Salem, was arrested in Lisbon in September 2002 for possessing fake passports and documents.

Bedi, in her statement given to the Portuguese police, has said that the $5,000 found in her home by them was her husband’s wedding present (mehr) when they contracted the religious marriage, as is a custom in Islam.

The Portuguese police investigation report states: “She met her husband about four years ago (in 2000) in Dubai. They took to living together, and later, in November 2000, she married him in the US, where they resided for some time.”

The report adds: “From the Americas they went to Dubai again, and from there to Switzerland after they received a threat from the Indian mafia.” What could be damning for Bedi is the part of the report that says, “She is aware that her husband had, in time, connections to some elements of that mafia, and they had reported him to the Dubai police authorities.”

While Bedi has claimed several times that she was not in touch with Salem after he was arrested in Portugal in 2002, documents clearly show this was not the case. Bedi used to meet Salem in jail every week and wrote mushy letters to him, some running into 10 pages, and some of which are in the possession of this newspaper. The letters clearly show that Bedi was married to Salem and had also converted to Islam of her own accord.

Starlet Monica Bedi isn't ganglord Abu Salem's second wife, she is the third. Fourth, in fact, if you take into account Salem's marriage of convenience to a Portuguese woman to acquire citizenship of that country.

Salem, known for his womanising in the underworld, married Yasmin Kamal, the daughter of a Karachi-based businessman, soon after he divorced his first wife, Samira Jumani.

Salem married Samira when he was just 24 and she 18. While Samira now lives with her two children, Aaamir Khan and Ayub Khan, in Los Angeles, US, Yasmin is a resident of Karachi.

Yasmin, who lived in her father's house in Karachi's posh Tariq Road Commercial area, was known to be close to several expatriate dons.

Monica Bedi and Abu Salem

Had Monica Bedi not run away with Abu Salem it would’ve been her 13th year in Bollywood.

The actress who started her career with the film Suraksha in 1995 is back in Bollywood and ready to struggle to find a place for herself. But it is certainly not going to be easy for the actress.

It has been over a year the actress is out of jail, but has still not been able to sign a single film. Says a trade pundit, “No producer wants to take the risk of signing a don’s girlfriend. How much ever Monica tries to disown Abu Salem, he will continue to follow her. Just recently he sent a legal notice to her about the marriage she is denying.”

When Abu Salem was a free man and extorted money from Bollywood, he did manage to get Monica work. “Producers feared for their lives, most of them were forced to sign Monica on gun point. Now Salem is in jail, but still keeps a tab on Monica which scares the industry,” says an industry insider. Guddu Dhanoa was the only director to sign Monica Bedi when she expressed her desire to return to Bollywood. But, says a senior director, “The project did not take off as no one was ready to help in the production work. Besides, several business managers were even approached to look after Monica’s work but all of them turned down the offer. Nobody wants to get into trouble with the police.”

Forget films, nobody wanted to even rent out a house to Monica in the Western suburbs. The actress only could manage a rented house in Mulund. When the actress complained about not getting a house in the western suburbs, Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam — who was her inmate in Big Boss’ house — managed to get her a house in Goregaon. Says an insider, “The landlord is facing problems from the cops who keep calling them every second day for verification of papers. Imagine if any of us from the film industry signs her?”

While the industry is scared of the cops, Monica is not. When told that the Intelligence Bureau was keeping tabs on her, she said, “Let them follow me. At least then they will know the truth.” Reacting to Mumbai police’s decision to go through the unedited tapes of Big Boss, she said, “They are more than welcome to do so. I have no fear.” Monica has already claimed that she has offers from a lot of producers from the South Indian film industry and is in talks with big banners in Mumbai, but is not interested in doing a film on her life.

“I am writing my autobiography now, only after that will I decide on the film on my life.” But industry insiders feel that Monica is not really hot in the film industry. “There are a lot of fresh faces in the industry and it is not going to be easy for her to make a place for herself here,” says a source.

But Monica is not ready to give up. “I am ready to struggle. I needed a platform to clear my name and thankfully I got Big Boss to do it,” she says.

That is good to know that she did social work at the temple. Maybe she regrets what she did. Hope God blesses her with good wisdom to lead the rest of her life properly.