Dummy accused manages to fool court

It is not often that a court forgets its own words. However, judges at the metropolitan court did. In an interesting turn of events, they forgot that they had allowed an accused to leave the country for a stipulated time. And when he did not appear for the hearings, they issued an arrest warrant against him!

However, the goof-up does not end there. According to case details, in 2007 one Ruksana bibi had lodged a complaint at Karanj police station accusing 14 persons of issuing fake documents for purchase of land. A complaint of fraud and cheating was subsequently registered, based on which Karanj police arrested one Dahyabhai Patel, resident of Alok Bungalows in Thaltej, and 13 others.

All the 14 were asked to remain present before the court for the hearing of the case. However, Dahyabhai took permission to remain away as he had to go to USA. Besides him, there were five others who did not appear for the hearings.

Meanwhile, the court forgot that Dahyabhai had been given the permission to leave country. It issued an arrest warrant against the six, asking them to be present in court for the next hearing or face action. Since Dahyabhai was not in India, the five presented a person, introducing him as Dahybhai before the court.

When the time given to the genuine Dahyabhai expired, he appeared before the court. Only then did the court realise the mistake. This goof-up was noticed by the complainant’s lawyer. He made an application before metropolitan court but the court did not take it seriously. The complainant then gave an application before the high court which in turn directed the metropolitan court take action against the dummy accused. The lower court in turn told the police to find the man. However, the cops stated that they would be able to act only after a complaint or application was filed.

It is four months now since the metropolitan court was asked to act. However, all it has done is to file a single application seeking arrest of the fake Dahyabhai.