From the glamorous world of cinema and a life of comfort, Monica Bedi—who was a friend of underworld mobster Abu Salem—is finding it difficult to adjust to the tough life in prison.Bedi was on Friday sentenced to five years imprisonment for getting a passport under a fictitious name.
According to sources in Chanchalguda women's prison, where Bedi is lodged, she was mainly quiet and appeared to be depressed. The facilities she had been enjoying while the trial was on, ever since she was lodged there after her extradition from Portugal along with Abu Salem in November 2005, have been withdrawn.
She was enrolled as "prisoner number 103" after the special Central Buro of Investigation (CBI) court on Friday convicted and sentenced her. The designer dresses that she has been wearing during the past 10 months of the trial have been replaced with white saris and blouses. When asked to choose between white saris and salwar suits, in accordance with jail rules, Bedi is reported to have picked up three pairs of saris and blouses.
Bedi was shifted to one of the barracks meant for convicts late on Friday following the court verdict, said a jail official. The jail has 330 prisoners. Bedi is sharing the barrack with 22 prisoners.