HC orders release of Malaysian woman lodged in Tihar

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court has come to the rescue of a Malaysian woman who was granted bail in a passport misuse case by a city court but was not released from jail as she failed to furnish a surety.
Justice Manmohan has directed the jail authorities to release Supasinni, 25, immediately after she deposited the surety amount.
Asking the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) to accept the surety amount of Rs 50,000 in cash to release the woman, Justice Manmohan said "She is a foreign national and how can she arrange a local surety here. What is the problem when she is ready to deposit the cash as surety amount. Cash in lieu of surety is a good enough substitute and the MM is directed to accept the cash".
"Don't harass her like this. She has been granted bail since April 9 and just because she was not able to furnish the surety she has been in custody," Justice Manmohan observed.
Supasinni's counsel Sushma Sharma submitted before the court that her client has come to India on a tourist visa in February this year. She was in Chennai when she had lost her passport on March 6.
Supasinni lodged a report with the Malaysian Embassy in New Delhi. She was wrongly arrested by the police and since March 20 she has been harassed for no fault of her, the counsel said.
The police alleged that she had sent another woman to Malaysia in her place by using her passport, the counsel added.
Accusing the girl of misusing the passport, the police booked her under various sections of Passport Act and various section of IPC, the lawyer submitted.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
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