NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed socialite Bina Ramani, a key witness in the Jessica Lal murder case, to go to Phuket in Thailand to attend the marriage ceremony of her niece.

A Division Bench, comprising Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Reva Khetrapal, allowed her plea on the condition that she submits a demand draft for Rs. 5 lakh to the High Court Registry as a personal bond to return to the country on or before April 3.

The Bench further ordered that Ms. Bina Ramani's husband George Mailhot and daughter Malani Ramani submit their respective passports to the Delhi police as a surety to Ms. Bina Ramani's assurance to the Court to return to the country on the promised date.

`Report after return'

The Bench also directed Ms. Bina Ramani to report to the city police on April 4 on her return from her foreign visit.

Earlier, Standing Counsel for the Delhi Government Mukta Gupta opposed Ms. Bina Ramani's plea submitting that she (Bina) was not only a key witness in the case but also a suspect for allegedly destroying evidence on the spot.

She submitted that she (Bina) was a foreign national with a British passport. She was also served a notice by the Foreign Regional Registration Office here for cancellation of her visa in 1999.

Wedding card `dubious'

She further submitted that she (Bina) was using the marriage ceremony as a pretext to go abroad to organise an even management show and that the wedding card submitted to the Court by her was dubious.

The Standing Counsel accused George Mailhot and Malani Ramani of not co-operating in the probe into the case whenever they were called. However, the Bench observed that as per investigation Ms. Bina Ramani might be a suspect but they were not going into all these issues.

Charges rebutted

Counsel for Ms. Bina Ramani, Rajiv Nayar, rebutted all the charges levelled against her by the city police submitting that she had fully cooperated in the investigation of the case.

He further submitted that there was not even an iota of chance that she would not return to the country as she had visited foreign countries 18 times during the investigation of the case and had returned home each time as per schedule.

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