Times of India | 2 months ago | 28-11-2022 | 04:05 am
Panaji: Fourteen years after a woman was accused of producing a forged SSCE marksheet and related documents before the passport authority in Panaji, a Panaji court has acquitted her for the offences after the prosecution “miserably failed” to prove its case.“The making of the false document is the basic ingredient of the offence of forgery. In the present case, the prosecution has miserably failed to prove the role of the accused in making a false document,” stated chief judicial magistrate, A Court, Panaji, Ram S Prabhu Dessai.The court found that the SSCE marksheet and school leaving certificate were not sent for scientific examination, and added that the investigating officer didn’t carry out any investigation in respect to the paper used for the marksheet, as well as the ink and machinery used to commit the offence.“…there is absolutely no investigation done so far as making of the false document is concerned. Although the investigating officer was aware that custodian of the blank marksheet was the director of education, the investigating officer deemed it fit not to investigate in that direction,” the court stated.The woman had allegedly produced a forged SSCE marksheet, passing certificate of Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and a school leaving certificate before the passport authority to avail passport facilities through a travel agent.“It appears that the entire investigation is done by the investigating officer under the pre-supposition that the accused has forged the said documents,” the court added.From the evidence of the passport officer, the court found that the investigating officer collected documents from the passport office without conducting a panchanama.Advocate G Teles, representing the accused, submitted that the passport officer along with the travel agent are in connivance in issuing passports and that there is every possibility that the travel agent might have obtained the woman’s signatures on the form and arranged the forged documents without the knowledge of the accused by charging fees.
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