Retired passport officer moves HC in Chhota Rajan fake passport case

Retired official Lalitha Lakshmanan, who is facing trial along with underworld don Chhota Rajan in a fake passport case, has moved the Delhi high court seeking quashing of criminal and corruption charges framed against her.

Lakshmanan, along with two other passport officers -- Jayashree Dattatray Rahate and Deepak Natvarlal Shah -- is facing trial on allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating, cheating by impersonation and forgery of documents.

The CBI, in its chargesheet, alleged that gangster Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan got issued a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar from Bengaluru in 1998-99 in connivance with Rahate, Shah and Lakshmanan.

The three are out on bail while Rajan is in judicial custody.

Lakshmanan who worked in a regional passport office at Bengaluru, has sought quashing of the charges framed against her.

On June 8, a trial court had framed charges against Chhota Rajan and others in a fake passport case.

Lakshmanan, 62, in her plea through advocate Satyanarayan Vashishth said that June 8 order of trial court was “illegal, incorrect, improper, bad in law and without jurisdiction.”

She further said that investigating agency did not obtained sanction for prosecution under the Passports Act and Criminal Procedure Code prior to initiation of the proceedings against her.

The plea said that in the year 1998-1999 she was posted as an assistant in Regional Passport office, Bangalore when the alleged passport was issued to Chhota Rajan.

“There is lack of territorial jurisdiction for the trial court at Delhi to try the offences against her and others since the alleged passport was issued at Bangalore and nothing has happened in Delhi,” it added.

Rajan was allegedly involved in over 85 cases, ranging from murder to extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking. He has cases pending against him in Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and with the CBI.

The don, held by the Indonesian police on October 25, 2015, was deported to India on November 6, 2015.