Delhi High Court notice to CBI in Chhota Rajan fake passport case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the CBI on a plea of retired passport official Lalitha Lakshmanan to quash criminal and corruption charges against her in underworld don Chhota Rajan's fake passport case.

Justice I.S. Mehta hearing the plea of Lakshamanan sought the Central Bureau of Investigation's response by July 8.

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

The CBI in its chargesheet alleged that gangster Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan got a fake passport issued 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 the charges framed against her e quashed.

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

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

She also said the investigating agency did not obtain 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 at the Regional Passport office in 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," the plea 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.