Swati Deshpande/TNN

Mumbai, May 23: The sessions court on Friday rejected Pakistani singer Adnan Sami's anticipatory bail in a complaint of cheating, intimidation and cruelty  lodged against him and his parents by his UAE citizen wife Sabah Galadri.

After spending the previous night at his ailing father's hospital bedside, Adnan was seen dozing off in fits and starts for the better part of the three-hour delivery of the verdict that eventually went against him but offered relief to his parents. "What can I say? Nothing, except that I shall move the Bombay high court in appeal now,'' Adnan told TOI as he walked out of the courtroom nearly two hours after the court's normal closing time. His indignation was evident as he vromed past in his blue Jaguar sports car.

His lawyer Vibhav Krishna had urged for a protection from arrest till he could file the appeal and the judge granted him a protective window "till and inclusive of May 25''.

Sabah, his second wife after his divorce with his Pakistani wife Zeba, walked out behind him with her lawyer Mrinalini Deshmukh, looking simultaneously relieved and elated. As the judge rejected Adnan's plea and said it was not a fit case where the court could interfere with the investigation started by the police, she had fought to hold back tears. As she waited for her Merc to arrive at the court's porch, she told TOI, "I had done nothing wrong. But after a long struggle I finally feel something has gone right. The fight, though, is not over yet. I have struggled all by myself in a country I don't really know much.''

The case between the two essentially began as a matrimonial dispute and took on a criminal hue when Sabah accused Adnan of trying to blackmail her with her "initimate'' pictures, which he alleged he would put on the net if she did not return their five Andheri flats that he had gifted her last year. She also alleged that he harassed and abused her in drunken fits and would not let her live in the house.

Adnan, according to whom her case is weak, expressed surprise that the police converted what they earlier registered as a non-cognisable complaint into an FIR. "She has no proof and has exageratted her claims. Besides, the gift deeds were already revoked early this year.'' Both submitted videos of each other-that allegedly have their pictures in compromising positions-in court.

What went against Adnan was the court's belief that the possibility of misuse of the alleged intimate photos of Sabah, which Adnan "had not submitted'' could not be ruled out. Adnan maintained that he had no such photos and so could not submit any.

While granting anticipatory bail to his mother and father, who is in coma at a private hospital, the court directed that their passports be "kept'' with the police for a month. Their visa will expire in 45 days.

Later Sabah said, "Why was he trying to blackmail me? I have to protect my reputation. If he had asked me nicely to give him back the flats I would have done it gladly. Now I want the pictures back first.''

Public prosecutor R V Kini said granting a stay of the order could not be faulted as time is required to be given for appealing too.