The Bombay High Court has granted interim bail to Swapna Patker, who was arrested last month for allegedly obtaining a fake PhD degree in clinical psychology and using it to practice as a counselor at a city hospital.

A bench of Justices SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar directed Patker to surrender her passport before the jurisdictional magistrate and to deposit a personal bond of Rs 25,000 as well as a surety of the same amount to secure bail. Patker, who was arrested on June 8 on charges of cheating and forgery among other offences, had approached HC seeking that the FIR registered against her by the Bandra police be quashed and that she be granted bail in the interim.