Court defers Bina Ramani's bail plea till Friday

NEW DELHI: A city court on Thursday asked the prosecution about what they have done during the six days' police custody of socialite Bina Ramani, an accused in a cheating and forgery case and a key witness in the Jessica Lall murder case.

"What did you do in the last six days of her custodial interrogation?," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau asked the Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police, while hearing Ramani's bail application, which was adjourned till Friday.

The court also directed the prosecution to submit all the case diaries detailing the progress of investigation.

The prosecution was also asked by the court to get the details about the number of cases in which she was involved either as an accused or a witness. The court also sought to know from SIT about the purpose of its existence referring to its alleged deviation from the Jessica Lall murder case.

Earlier, the defence counsel accused the prosecution of harassing her for being a key witness in the Jessica Lall murder case.

Ramani was arrested in Goa on September six and produced before the court here the next day which remanded her to four days police custody.

On September 11, accepting the prosecution plea that she was not co-operating in the investigation, the court had extended her police remand by two days during which she was taken to Goa accompanied by one of her lawyers.

On September 4, the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against her, executable on or before September 15 on the prosecution's allegation that she was not joining the investigations and has been evading meeting with the investigating officer despite efforts to contact her.

Ramani is accused of obtaining a licence to run a restaurant from MCD on the basis of forged and fabricated documents.

According to the FIR lodged on March 6 this year, Ramani obtained the license misrepresenting that she was the owner of the restaurant named 'Qutub Colonade' on the basis of forged documents and served liquor without having any valid licence.

She had also allegedly submitted a rent note dated May 8, 1986, a No-Objection Certificate (NOC), rent receipts and other documents bearing the owner Diwan Chand's signature which were found to be forged besides a ration card never issued by the Food and Civil supplies office, based on which information MCD issued a licence to her.