A single bench of the High Court of Manipur justice MV Muralidaran rejected an anticipatory bail sought by a man charged of forging income and assets certificate under Lilong Police station on Thursday.
The accused Md Habibullah alias Hasib runs a DTP centre under the name MH Computer Works at Lilong Bazar Alia Lamkhai. He sought anticipatory bail in connection with an FIR filed at Lilong police station for allegedly forging income and assets certificate, stating that he is innocent and has been falsely implicated in the case.
The accused was granted interim bail by the Session Judge, Thoubal on November 23, 2020, in the same case but surprisingly, the session judge vacated his interim bail on December 18, 2020.
The Lilong police station filed an FIR against the accused in connection with a memorandum sent from SDC, Lilong. The forgery was detected by the SDC office while visiting the website www/manipuruniv.ac.in of Manipur University, Chanchipur, Imphal West.
The official found that one Km Khullakpam Sajida, daughter of late Nihamuddin, who is a resident of Lilong Haoreibi Makha Leikai has been holding and issuing a fake/forged Income and Assets Certificate purporting to be produced by the accused under the category of Economically Weaker Sections on September 10, 2020.
The person who possessed that forged document claimed that it was issued by the SDC using photoshop software technology behind the back and knowledge of the office of the SDC.
Sajida has allegedly used the said fake/forged certificate in question for admission purposes into the Manipur University as if the same was issued by the office of the SDC as a genuine one.
The office of the SDC clarified that the certificate in question is not related to the office of the SDC in terms of any manner and it does not have the power and purview to issue such type of illegal certificate at any point in time.
Further, the office issued a memorandum to the effect that the certificate said to have been issued has neither related nor recorded at the office and further clarified that the alleged office number reflected in the certificate is also fictitious.
Accordingly, the Manipur University, Canchipur can take appropriate action for using such fake certificates for personal gains by referring to the office memorandum issued by the SDC. Thereafter, on November 13, 2020, one Md S Daulat Khan, SDC, Lilong forwarded the above said office memorandum to the Lilong Police Station for taking action against the commission of forgery.
The court after hearing the submission from the counsel of the petitioner and additional public prosecutor stated that since the investigation is on and four accused persons are concealing the fact of the case by diverting the charge with each other so as to dissuade themselves from the liability of the case. It was stated that the real fact of the case is still unknown and the forged Income and Assets Certificate and the seals which were used in the commission of the crime is also still unrecovered.
The court finds that there is no ground for granting anticipatory bail to the petitioner herein and the custodial interrogation of the petitioner is very much required in order to recover and seize the original forged Income and Assets Certificate and seals, it stated.
