New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response of CBI on a retired government official’s plea, who is facing trial in a fake passport case along with gangster Chhota Rajan, seeking quashing of criminal and corruption charges framed against her.
Justice I S Mehta issued notice to the agency asking it to file their response before July 8 on a plea by a 62-year- old Lalitha Lakshmanan, a former public servant who worked in a regional passport office at Bengaluru.
She sought quashing of the charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy under the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act framed against her by a trial court here on June 8. Similar charges have also been framed against two other public servants — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate and Deepak Natvarlal Shah — who have also been accused of helping Rajan procure a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar.
The trial court had framed charges also under the Passport Act against all the accused, including the gangster. While Rajan is lodged in Tihar Jail here, the other three accused are out on bail. Lakshmanan said in her plea that the incident of alleged issuance of fake passport to Rajan occurred in Bangalore in 1998-99 and hence the trial court in Delhi does not have the jurisdiction to try the case.
