Date:27/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/27/stories/2008042754340400.htm

New Delhi

Cash in lieu of surety allowed for bail of Malaysian

Staff Reporter

Petition by the accused in a passport misuse case

Through her counsel the accused urged the High Court to accept cash in place of a surety
Court directs the accused to deposit Rs.50,000 in cash with the lower court for a surety

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has directed a metropolitan magistrate’s court here to accept cash in lieu of a surety from a Malaysian national to allow her to come out of the Central Tihar jail in a passport misuse case.

Justice Manmohan Sarin passed the order on a petition by the Malaysian national, Supasinni, submitting that she was languishing in jail despite being granted bail by the Metropolitan Magistrate as she had not been able to arrange a local surety.

Through her counsel she urged the High Court to accept cash in place of a surety to facilitate her release.

The Metropolitan Magistrate had granted bail to her on April 9 but she was not released because of her failure to get a local person to stand surety for her.

The Delhi Police had arrested her in March.

Mr. Justice Sarin directed the accused to deposit Rs.50,000 in cash with the lower court for a surety.

According to the prosecution, the accused had come to India on a tourist visa in February this year.

She had sent a Malaysian national to that country on her passport and had later reported to the Malaysian Embassy here that she had lost her passport when she was in Chennai, the prosecution alleged.

Counsel for the accused submitted that the Delhi Police had wrongly arrested her as she had already lodged a complaint with the Malaysian Embassy about her passport having gone missing.

Accepting her argument, Mr. Justice Sarin observed that “being a foreign national how could she arrange a local surety?”.

“Cash is a good enough substitute for a surety,” he stated.