Honeymoon should not be televised, court tells Rahul Mahajan

NEW DELHI - A city court Tuesday allowed Rahul Mahajan to leave the country on a honeymoon with his newly wedded wife but imposed a condition that the trip will not be telecast on any reality show.

Special judge J.P.S. Malik granted Rahul the permission and released his passport after he furnished a fixed deposit of Rs.500,000 alongwith a personal bond.

“Rahul will also give an undertaking that he shall get the marriage registered under the provisions of the Hindu Marriage Act within a period of two months and marriage certificate should be produced before the court,” the court said in its order.

The court also asked Rahul to give a undertaking that his visit to Maldives will be a private one and in no way an extension of the show in which he had participated and there will be no shooting of his visit for telecast.

Rahul, who was in the court, appeared pleased and said: “I am obliged to the court for allowing me to start a new beginning with Dimpy. I am very happy and excited.”

Asked what his plan was, Rahul said: “I will just pack my bag and catch the Maldives flight early Wednesday.”

He also clarified that his visit to Maldives was purely personal and was not part of the television contract.

During the arguments, Rahul’s counsel Ramesh Gupta contended that Rahul was “a law abiding citizen and has always appeared in court whenever required”.

Stressing that honeymoon was not a part of the reality show, Gupta said: “Rahul would love to go any place in India but since he is a public figure, he will be identified easily so its better for him to leave the country to save his privacy.”

Rahul married Dimpy Ganguly on a TV reality show Sunday. The son of late senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Pramod Mahajan, he, in his March 5 application, said he wanted to “go to the Maldives and Ireland for his honeymoon March 9 and stay there till March 30″.

Rahul’s passport has been in the court’s custody since his trial in a drug abuse case in 2006 and he was not allowed to leave the country without the court’s permission.

Rahul and his father’s secretary Vivek Moitra were admitted to Apollo Hospital here June 2, 2006, after they allegedly consumed contraband drugs laced with alcohol at Pramod Mahajan’s then official residence at 7, Safdarjung Road. Moitra died in hospital.

Rahul was let off drug trafficking charges, which entails harsher punishment, but booked for consumption of banned drugs.