SIT told to submit Goa raid findings

TNN / Sep 15, 2006, 00:11 IST

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Arguments on Bina Ramani's bail application in a forgery case remained inconclusive even on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Arguments on Bina Ramani's bail application in a forgery case remained inconclusive on Thursday as the court sought details from the prosecution if she was a witness or an accused in other cases.
Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Kamini Lau also directed the prosecution to give details by Friday about the findings of the police team which kept Bina under custody for six days for questioning and raiding her Goa premises.
When the defence sought Bina's bail claiming innocence and submitted that Delhi Police's special investigation team (SIT) was going beyond its mandate, Lau took on record from the prosecution, the Delhi High Court order on the basis of which the SIT was created.
"Instead of gathering further evidence against the accused responsible for Jessica's murder, the SIT is acting contrary to the object for which it was formed... SIT is trying to destroy the credibility of the evidence already existing against the accused by foisting false charges on the petitioner, (Bina) who testified against the accused," Bina's bail plea stated.

According to the police, Bina — a crucial witness in the Jessica Lall murder case — allegedly obtained the licence for her restaurant in Mehrauli, where Jessica was murdered, on the basis of forged documents and served liquor without a valid licence...
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She was booked under IPC Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security or will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document).

Defence counsel K K Sarin and S R Sundaram claimed the alleged forged rent receipts of Bina's restaurant had yet not been sent to a forensic lab to confirm charges against her.
"The intention behind giving the alleged forged documents to licensing authority was only to prove legal occupation and not to deceive the authority," a defence counsel said, claiming charges under IPC Section 467 were uncalled for.
Charges of forging the signatures of Diwan Chand, the owner of the restaurant premises, on rent receipts were also contested by the defence on the ground that he was physically-challenged and no two signatures of his matched due to his physical state.
According to the FIR against her, Bina allegedly submitted a rent note, a no-objection certificate (NOC), rent receipts and other documents bearing Chand's signature which were found to be forged, besides a ration card never issued by the food and civil supplies office, based on which MCD issued a licence to her.
On Thursday, Lau had sent Ramani to jail for 14 days after she was produced in court. Ramani was arrested in Goa on September 6.
The court had on Monday allowed the police to take Bina to Goa after they claimed to have recovered certain documents from her computer suggesting that she had shifted all her documents and belongings from Delhi to Goa.

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