The Delhi High Court has refused to transfer to Bangalore the trial in a case of cheating and conspiracy involving gangster Chhota Rajan and a retired woman passport officer.
“...no case is made out for transfer of the trial from Special Judge, Delhi to Special Judge, Bangalore,” Justice Mukta Gupta said.
‘No jurisdiction’
Justice Gupta dismissed the petition of retired passport officer Lalitha Lakshmanan, 62, who along with Rajan and others, faces trial for allegedly issuing a passport to Chhota Rajan on forged documents in 1998 while she was posted as assistant regional passport officer in Bangalore.
A special CBI court had framed charges against her and others in June 2016. She, however, sought quashing of the charges on the ground that the special court in Delhi did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case.
‘Offences outside India’
The court noted that the alleged conspiracy were part of an offence committed in India and could be tried in Delhi.
“In the present case, initial conspiracy was hatched and offences of forgery, etc., were committed in Bangalore. However, pursuant to the conspiracy hatched and offences committed in Bangalore, further offences were committed outside India as forged passport was renewed twice at Harare and Sydney. The offences committed at Harare and Sydney were not part of offences but completed acts of cheating and forgery,” the High Court said.
“Thus, present is a case where some offences were committed in India, some in Harare and some in Sydney and the cause of actions arose both in India and outside India. The offences committed in each jurisdiction were not part of offences or part ingredient of offences but complete offences. Section 220 CrPC directs that if a person commits more offences than one, in one series of acts so connected to form the same transaction, he may be charged and tried at one trial,” Justice Gupta held.
Arrested in Delhi
Noting that the CBI had arrested Rajan in Delhi, the court concluded, “...when offences are allegedly committed by a citizen of India within the country and outside as well, both the Courts i.e. where the offence was allegedly committed in India and also where the accused on being brought to India is found would have territorial jurisdiction to try the offences so committed, if the offences can be tried together...” Justice Gupta concluded.
