Mumbai court discharges ex-vice principal of law college in forged degree case

A Mumbai court has discharged the former woman vice principal of a law college here in a 2007 case about the alleged use of a forged B.A. degree to get admission in the institution, noting there is no material to remotely suggest she tampered with the document.

The charge-sheet against the accused advocate is filed with the “presumption” that she prepared a false document. There is no sufficient evidence to frame the charges against her, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Esplanade court) Vinod Ramrao Patil said in the judgment on February 9.

The prosecution alleged that Chitra Salunkhe used a forged Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree while taking admission in the L.L.B. and L.L.M. courses in Siddharth Law College.

Ms. Salunkhe, then being the college’s vice principal, submitted a false and forged certificate to get admission. She did not pass the BA examination and hence committed cheating and forgery, the police charged.

The case had led to her termination as vice-principal of the college.

Mr. Salunkhe, through her lawyer, contended that the allegations against her were groundless. Some high-ranked police officers falsely implicated her in the crime, she submitted.

The defence also highlighted a report by a former DGP, which suggested Ms. Salunkhe had been harassed and prosecuted over the years by colleagues based on her gender and caste.

The court noted that the investigation officer failed to produce or seize the alleged forged degree certificate.

“There is no material on record to remotely suggest that the accused has tampered the document,” it said.

The charge-sheet against the accused is filed “with the presumption that the accused prepared a false document”, the court observed.

“It is settled law that while dealing with the discharge application, when the two views are equally possible, and the judge is satisfied that evidence adduced before him giving rise to some suspicion but not grave suspicion against the accused, he will be fully within his right to discharge the accused,” the Magistrate said.

While accepting the discharge plea, the court also pointed out that the charges against the accused were not proved in the departmental inquiry.