Court extends police custody of model, dancer

There was no reprieve for Mumbai-based model Jiya Chopra (22), dancer Vedika Shivsagar (22) and passport agent Arvind Bhat (32), as their stay in police custody was extended by three days, up to June 2, by the court of Judicial Magistrate (First Class) R L Wankhede yesterday.

No repreive: Dancer Vedika Shivsagar will have to spend three more
days in police custody

The three were arrested in a passport racket involving police constable Digambar Laxman Ghorpade, who was earlier arrested on charges of helping an aide of Dawood Ibrahim procure a genuine passport with a fake name and address. Chopra and Bhatt were arrested on Friday, while Vedika was arrested on Sunday.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Cantonment Division) Mohammad Makandar, who is investigating the case, produced the suspects in court yesterday. Assistant Public Prosecutor Shilpa Mahatekar told the court they were involved in a serious offence and the police should be given at least seven days' custody of the suspects.
"The police have to investigate the source of forged documents and also the purpose behind procuring passports on forged documents," Mahatekar said. Advocate Shrikant Shivde and Yogesh Pawar, arguing on behalf of the suspects, said that though their clients had submitted the original, the agent procured the passport on forged documents.

Both Chopra and Shivsagar had approached Bhatt for the passport. He then conspired with city-based passport agent Inayatali Hariyani and others to arrange fake documents and procure a passport for them. The agents conspired with Ghorpade, now suspended, who was attached to the passport section of the Bund Garden police station. Ghorpade was responsible for the verification process, but cleared the passport documents without checking them. Ghorpade and Hariyani are in police custody till June 3.