NEW DELHI, July 5 -- A Delhi court has set aside charges against a man under the Passports Act for allegedly possessing a fake Malaysian visa, holding that there was no evidence linking the document to any offence committed in India. Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Partap Singh Laler ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish that the visa was forged, procured or used in India, or that the accused had ever travelled to or attempted to travel to Malaysia.
The court observed that criminal charges cannot rest on conjecture or suspicion alone and said the unexplained presence of the visa sticker in the passport was insufficient to constitute an offence. It also noted that no material showed the visa was affixed in India before the accused's departure. Accordingly, the court discharged the accused under the relevant provisions of the Passports Act.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.