Mumbai Court Acquits 4 Stamp Vendors In 20-Year-Old Counterfeit Stamp Paper Case; Cites Lack Of Evidence

Mumbai: After nearly two decades since a case was registered in 2006, a sessions court on Thursday acquitted four stamp vendors accused of selling counterfeit stamp papers, holding that prosecutors failed to prove they knew the documents were fake at the time of sale.

According to the prosecution, lawyers and litigants submitted judicial stamp papers of ₹5,000 and ₹25,000 denominations that were suspected to be forged.

The case was lodged at Azad Maidan police station in November 2006. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took custody of 310 such stamp papers and sent them to the Government Security Press, Nashik, for verification.

The press reported that 191 of the 310 papers were forged. Subsequent investigation by officers of the General Stamp Office found that 177 of those forged judicial stamp papers had been sold from counters at the Bombay High Court.

Investigators later named 11 stamp vendors as accused, alleging they knowingly sold forged stamps for personal gain, causing a wrongful loss of ₹13.45 lakh to the government. However, the trial proceeded only against Jagan Shinde, Hemant Sawant, Gangadhar Dhumal and Shrikant Rane. The remaining accused were either discharged or died during the proceedings.

Special Judge Chakor Baviskar said the charge sheet contained nothing to suggest any of the four had counterfeited government stamps. The court also said evidence did not establish that the forged stamps were allotted to any specific vendor or sold from a particular counter on a particular date. It further noted investigators failed to trace the source of the counterfeit stamps or prove the vendors knew this.

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