A Delhi court recently encountered an unbelievable circumstance when the Central Bureau of Investigation informed it that an accused in a forgery case had concealed from it that the person who had stood as surety for him had died 17 years ago.
“I have specifically asked the accused as to why he had not informed the court for 17 years regarding the death of his surety, to which he stated that he was not aware. It is hard to believe that this is so,” Special CBI Judge Sanjeev Aggarwal said.
In its verification report, the CBI informed the court that surety died in 2000.
However, the court later accepted his story and allowed a new bail surety.
“This court is refraining from imposing exemplary costs upon the accused for concealing the death of his surety, which should have been brought to the notice of the court at the earliest,” the Judge said.
Shady land deal
Accused Vineet Tiwari has been facing trial for allegedly attempting to sell a piece of land belonging to the Bombay Port Trust for ₹2.27 crore in 1982 by forging letters of an erstwhile Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Shipping and Transport.
The court will on May 22 hear an application by the CBI seeking cancellation of his bail. The CBI alleged that Tiwari was delaying the trial of the case.
The court had in 2008 framed charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and using forged documents as genuine under various provisions of the IPC against Tiwari and L. K. Kaul, another accused in the case.
It was prima facie evident that Kaul and Tiwari had entered into criminal conspiracy with accused approver A. S. Master, a resident of Thane in Maharashtra, to prepare false documents by forging the signatures of then Joint Secretary of the Ministry on the letter for the allotment of the Bombay Port Trust land at Colaba, the court said.
It also said said the land deal was allegedly made in favour of Messrs North Star Corporation, a concern of Master, to induce some unidentified persons to cause wrongful gain to themselves and corresponding loss to others.
