Malini Ramani can go abroad: Delhi HC

NEW DELHI: Malini Ramani, fashion designer, socialite and a key witness in the Jessica Lal murder case was on Thursday granted permission by the Delhi High Court to travel abroad.

A division bench comprising Justices Vijender Jain and SN Agarwal allowed her appeal and permitted her to go to America on her furnishing a bank draft for Rs500,000 to the high court registry.

However the bench directed Malini's mother and socialite Bina Ramani and the latter's husband George Mailhot to surrender their passports to the investigating officer. Ramani had moved a fresh application seeking permission to travel abroad. Earlier on may 16 another bench of the high court had rejected Malini's plea for permission to go to America, saying appeal proceedings in the Jessica Lal murder case had already began.

The Delhi Police had earlier in March this year issued "look out" notices against all the witnesses in the murder and retrained them from leaving the country without prior permission of the court.