Hearing an appeal against the conviction by a trial court in 2016, the Additional District and Sessions Court of Chandigarh acquitted three persons from charges of forging the sales tax documents of a Chandigarh-based firm. The accused, Surinder Kumar, Vipin Kumar and Ashwani Kumar, were acquitted by the Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Narender.
As per the case, the accused were booked by the vigilance cell of the UT Police, for allegedly forging sales tax documents of a Sector 30-based firm, causing loss to the state exchequer. Ashwani and Vipin had allegedly tampered with the receipts of sales tax of Rs 8,500 to Rs 2,300 and caused a total loss of Rs 85,000 to the state exchequer.
The signatures of accused Surinder was found on some of the seized documents, as per the prosecution.
The three had been convicted in 2016 by the trial court under Sections 420, 467, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). They, however, challenged the order before the appellate court of Chandigarh.
During the proceedings of the appeal, the defense counsel, Advocate Dikshit Arora, argued that the accused were falsely booked by the vigilance, and the trial court had erroneously passed their order of conviction.
Advocate Arora contended that as per Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) reports, none of the standard and specimen signatures matched with the handwriting of the accused, which were there on the fake and forged challans.
There was also no recovery of any amount in the dispute.
After hearing the matter, the court acquitted the accused from the charges. A detailed order is yet to be released from the court.