Mumbai, October 10, 2026: Nearly 20 years after a forgery case was registered against the trustees of the Sarva Dharma Manav Charitable Trust, documentary evidence has been found missing from the court record. The court has also rejected the prosecution's plea to rely on secondary evidence.
Case involves alleged Rs 12 crore fraud
In 2005-06, a case was originally registered at a police station in Thane. It was alleged that the accused had started a trust named Sarva Dharma Manav Charitable Trust and opened a current account at the State Bank of India's Wagle Estate branch. The prosecution alleged that, using forged documents, the accused managed to get funds to the tune of Rs 12 crore transferred into the trust's account.
Based on the case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also lodged a money laundering case. Both cases were transferred to the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court at the Mumbai Sessions Court.
Original documents found missing
Last month, when the court asked the prosecution to begin the trial, it was noticed that the original documents allegedly forged by the accused were missing. The court found that the handwriting report was on record, but the documents annexed to it were missing. Hence, the prosecution pleaded to rely on secondary evidence.
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Court rejects prosecution plea
The court rejected the plea, observing that, "There is nothing mentioned in the application, as who was in custody of the said documents, who has received the documents alongwith Handwriting Expert Report, and who thereafter took it into the custody after it was received from the Forensic Department alongwith the opinion of the Handwriting Expert. There is nothing on record alongwith the present application to know which documents the prosecution is intending to prove."
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