Document Fragment View

Matching Fragments

As per prosecution story, the accused Shamboo Nath Ram being passenger entered into a conspiracy with co accused Prem Kumar to facilitate journey of Shamboo Nath Ram by arranging forged ECNR (Emigration Clearance Not Required) stamp on his passport bearing no. F­3871957 for unlawful consideration and in pursuance to that conspiracy, the accused Shamboo Nath Ram produced the aforesaid passport before the clearing officer on 26.03.2007 at departure left wing of immigration for clearance. On scrutiny of the passport, it was found that the ECNR stamp and the signature of ECNR authority of RPO Lucknow affixed at page no. 5 of the aforesaid passport was forged.

In his cross examination by Ld. Defence Counsel for accused Prem Kumar, he deposed that he was working as Policy Section Incharge before March 2007 and the ECNR stamping was done in passport office, Lucknow and he never remained incharge of ECNR stamp clearing section. He deposed that he does not know who was Incharge of ECNR clearance in March, 2007 or before that and no opinion was sought from them in respect of ECNR stamp in question at page no. 31. He had seen the passport and report in the Court Ex. PW 7/A. He deposed that he was not expert in verification of signatures and never worked in CFSL. He further deposed that since the stamp in question belongs to him therefore, he can say that it had been forged. He deposed that he was working with Mr. Kaushik while he was superintendent and his duty was to supervise different sections of the office. He deposed that the report was not signed and prepared in his presence and he denied the suggestion that due to this reason, he is not sure whether the report was signed by Mr. N.K. Kaushik. He also denied that his signatures were genuine in respect of the said stamp and he was deposing falsely.

(ix) PW 9 SI Ashok Kumar was DO in the present case. He proved the present FIR No. 119/07 as Ex. PW 9/A and his endorsement Ex. PW 9/B on the complaint and seizing of the travel documents as Ex. PW 1/A.

(x) PW 10 SI Vinod Kumar, IO in the present case interrogated the accused Shamboo Nath Ram and arrested him vide memo Ex. PW 2/A, conducted his personal search vide memo Ex. PW 2/B and recorded his disclosure statement as Ex. PW 2/C. The FIR NO.: 119 OF 2007 POLICE STATION: IGI AIRPORT U/S: 420/468/471/120 B IPC & 12 PASSPORT ACT 8 of 14 accused disclosed the name of M/s Utsav Travels, Gorakhpur and also disclosed the name of agent as Prem Kumar. On 01.04.2007, he alongwith Ct. Ratan, Ct. Surender and other SI Arun Kumar Chaudhary reached Gorakhpur and made the arrival entry at Cantt Station at Gorakhpur and Bihari Lal and Saral Ram also joined them and then a raid was conducted at the office of M/s Utsav Travels. They identified one person sitting there as Prem Kumar being an agent to whom they stated that they had given Rs. 14,000/­ for each person to arrange the ECNR stamp on their passport. He proved the arrest memo of accused Prem Kumar as Ex. PW 5/A, his personal search memo as Ex. PW 5/B and his disclosure statement as Ex. PW 4/A. The accused Prem Kumar disclosed that ECNR stamp was arranged through Dhaniya Travels Lucknow and he had given Rs. 5,000/­ for each passport. He further deposed that they alongwith accused Prem Kumar went to Lucknow and raided the office of Dhaniya Tour and Travels where one boy Rashid Khan was arrested. He disclosed that he has taken Rs. 5,000/­ from each passport from him. He was arrested vide memo Ex. PW 4/B and his personal search was conducted vide memo Ex. PW 4/C and his disclosure statement was recorded as Ex. PW 4/D. The accused Rashid disclosed that he arranged the stamp through Javed Naqbi who was also apprehended vide arrest memo Ex. PW 4/E. The passport and ECNR stamp were got verified from the RPO Lucknow and the report was collected.

10. I have heard Ld. APP for State and Ld. Defence counsels for accused. In the present case, the prosecution has examined 10 witnesses to prove its case. I have evaluated their testimony at length.

11. The main allegation against the accused persons is that of entering into a conspiracy to cheat the Government of India and the Immigration department by using forged ECNR stamp on passport of accused Shambu through co­accused Prem Kumar. In this regard, it is well settled that "The essence of conspiracy is that there should be agreement in persons to do one or the other of the acts described in Section 120 A IPC. The said agreement may be proved by direct evidence or may be inferred from the acts and conduct of parties. There is no difference between the proof of mode of conspiracy and that of any other offence. It can be established by direct evidence or by circumstantial evidence but Section 10 of the Evidence Act introduces the Doctrine of Agency and if the conditions laid down therein are satisfied the act done by one are admissible against co conspirators. The evidentiary value of the said act is limited by two circumstances namely the acts shall in reference to the common intention and in respect of the period after such intention was entertained by anyone of them. The expression in reference to your common intention is very comprehensive and appears to have been designedly used to give it a wider scope than the words in furtherance of. In English law with the result, anything said, done or written by co conspirators the conspiracy was formed, will be evidence against the other before he entered the field of conspiracy or FIR NO.: 119 OF 2007 POLICE STATION: IGI AIRPORT U/S: 420/468/471/120 B IPC & 12 PASSPORT ACT 11 of 14 after he left it. Another important limitation implicit in the language is indication by the expressed scope of its relevancy. Anything so said, done or written is a relevant fact as against each of the persons believed to be so conspiry as well as for the purpose of proving the existence of conspiracy as for the purpose of showing that any such person was a party to it." as held by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Sardar Sardul Singh Caveeshar Vs State of Maharashtra (And Connected Appeals) dated 18.03.1963.