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Three get two years jail in a fake passport case in Delhi

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Three persons, including two officials of Delhi's regional passport office, have been sent to two years in jail by a Delhi court for issuing a forged passport to a woman to help her travel abroad on fake identity a decade ago.

Special CBI Judge RP Pandey handed down the jail term to two passport officials, Harbhajan Yadav and Ram Chander, for abusing their official position in getting issued the additional passport booklet on the basis of false and forged documents, along with private person Anil Dhawan, who had filled up the application form. The court, however, acquitted a superintendent of Regional Passport Office (RPO), saying his role was doubtful. The woman who attempted to travel on the fake passport was declared proclaimed offender (PO) by the court. The court held Yadav and Chander, who were working as clerks at RPO, Delhi, and private person Dhawan guilty under the provisions of the IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and the Passport Act.

"In view of findings, I hold accused Harbhajan Yadav, Ram Chander and Anil Dhawan guilty of offences punishable under various sections of IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and Passport Act. They are convicted accordingly," the judge said. "The issuance of fraudulent passport in the name of a fictitious person causes loss of reputation to the government and wrongful gain to the person who obtains such passport on which he/she is capable to travel abroad. "Therefore, such a conduct of accused public servant, due to which a passport has been issued to a person, who is otherwise not entitled to it, falls within the definition of 'criminal misconduct'," the judge said.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 each on Yadav and Chander and Rs 5,000 on Dhawan. It granted bail to the three convicts for a month on a personal bond of Rs 20,000 and a surety of like amount.

CBI had registered an FIR against five people in the case in 2004 and a charge sheet was filed in 2007. According to CBI charge sheet, the passport officials at RPO, Delhi had conspired with private persons to issue forged passport in the form of additional passport booklets.

It said that a passport was issued in the name of one Geeta Kapoor with her forged signatures and details along with photograph of Kuldeep Kaur, who tried to use it to travel to Uzbekistan from New Delhi, where she was caught by the airport authorities in April 2004. (More) 

While holding Yadav guilty, the court said according to evidence on record, the issuance of additional forged passport booklet was not at all possible without his connivance. "Yadav was the crucial link for issuance of the additional passport booklet in the name of Geeta Kapoor with photograph of Kuldeep Kaur," the court said, while relying on testimonies of prosecution witnesses, including police, other officials of passport office, travel agents etc.

The court said Chander also abused his official position with ulterior motive due to which the additional passport booklet, being a valuable thing, was fraudulently got issued in the name of Kapoor with photograph of Kaur. While convicting private person Dhawan, the court said the testimony of witnesses and handwriting experts showed that it was he who had forged the documents of passport.

The accused, Bibianus Toppo, the then superintendent of RPO, was acquitted by the court which said as per evidence, it cannot be concluded that in league with other accused.

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