Hyderabad: A CBI Investigating Officer, who
probed a fake passport case involving Abu Salem in Andhra Pradesh, Thursday told a local court that the extradited underworld don and two others, including actress Monica Bedi,
impersonated to obtain the key travel document.
After the trial against the gangster for obtaining a
passport on "fictitious" name in 2001 from Kurnool district
began on June 18, the CBI Special Court here recorded the
statement of Investigating Officer Vijay Sarathi, a
prosecution witness.
In his deposition, Sarathi, who was part of the team that
probed the case during 2002-03 said during the investigation
he had examined prosecution witnesses and collected documents
related to the case after visiting Kurnool, Hyderabad and also
Mumbai.
"I collected the specimen signatures of the accused in
the presence of independent witnesses. I verified the
particulars/addresses mentioned in the disputed passports
with the help of postal employees and forwarded the specimen
signatures and hand-writings to the Government Examiner of
Questioned Documents (GEQD) for scrutiny," he said.
Sarathi said by the time he handed over investigations
to another CBI officer in October 2003, around 90 per cent of
the probe had been completed. "After the investigation, I was
of the opinion that Abu Salem impersonated as Ramil Kamil
Malik and obtained a passport from the Regional Passport
Office in Hyderabad," he told the court.
Bureau Report
