A district court in Chandigarh Friday acquitted four persons of charges registered in of the four FIRs by Vigilance Department under Chandigarh Administration in 2011, in connection with fake driving licence case. Advertising The accused, Lalit Kumar, Munish Dhar, Vikas Kumar and Mahesh Chamoli, were acquitted of charges under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) by the Court of Saloni Gupta, Judicial Magistrate First Class. Another accused in the case, Karanraj Giri, was declared a Proclaimed Offender (PO) in the case by the court. Two among the four accused in case, Munish and Lalit, have also been acquitted of charges in another two FIRs registered in 2011 by the vigilance department in connection with the scam. The department had registered four FIRs in 2011 in relation to the case. Of these, three have been disposed off by the court, wherein the accused were acquitted. The trial against eight accused persons including, Lalit, Munish, Vikas and Mahesh, is yet to commence in one of the FIRs registered by the department. The vigilance department booked the four accused in September 2011, following a complaint from a beneficiary of fake driving licence. As per the complainant Sanjeev Kumar, the accused, Munish Dhar, met him outside Registering & Licensing Authority (RLA) at Sector 17, Chandigarh. He told Kumar that he could get him a driving licence for Rs 1,500. As Kumar’s licence had been rejected by the RLA, he agreed to procure the licence through Munish and signed on a fresh application for it at the RLA. Upon receiving the licence, Kumar found that it did not have his original address, which was of Pinjore, but bore an address of Sector 45, Chandigarh. Kumar then submitted a complaint to the vigilance department. As per reports submitted by the department, the gang was busted and during the scrutiny of seized files, it was revealed that in all their documents, fake residential addresses were verified through fake stamps and signatures of SHO of Sector 34 and DSP Traffic. The vigilance learned that the accused, Dhar and Lalit Kumar, used fake stamps for obtaining fake driving licences in lieu of money. Accused, Mahesh and Vikas, were involved in arranging fake residential proofs. Dhar also faked signatures of SHO, Sector 34 police station. The vigilance, during the investigation, found that around 3000 fake licences were prepared by the accused in the RLA of Chandigarh Administration. During the trial, the defense counsel, Advocate Harish Bhardwaj, argued that the vigilance bureau made the beneficiaries of fake licences witnesses and complainants in the case. He further argued that the role of the accused, as framed in the case, was nowhere proved by the prosecution and the case was falsely imposed. Advertising After hearing the arguments and facts of the case, the court acquitted four persons of charges today. The judgement copy of the case is yet to be released by the court.

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