Court dismisses appeal of ex-supdt of Excise Dept

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 23

The court of District and Sessions Judge SK Aggarwal today dismissed the appeal of a former Excise and Taxation Department Superintendent, Sanaullah Khan, and two others in a forgery case.

The court upheld the decision of the lower court in which the three convicts were sentenced to two years of imprisonment in 2014.

In February 2006, the UT Vigilance Department had cracked a three-year-old case wherein former Excise and Taxation Department Inspector Sanaullah Khan, a resident of Sector 12 A, Panchkula, was accused of getting a fake graduation degree from Magadh University, Bihar.

Two other convicts in the case were joint controller of Magadh University Syed Salman Balkhi and head typist of the university Arun Singh.

The appeals filed by the three convicts were dismissed today. They were convicted under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, 511 and 120 B of the IPC.

As per the prosecution case, Sanaullah Khan, in connivance with some officials of the UT Excise Department, had managed to show that his graduation degree was genuine and a verification certificate was procured from the university with the help of Arun Singh and Balkhi.

A thorough probe by a Vigilance team revealed that the verification report had been faked by the head typist and the joint controller.

On May 11, 1999, a letter was sent by the CBI, Chandigarh, to the Home Secretary, Chandigarh, which was marked to the Deputy Inspector General of Police-cum-in charge, Vigilance Cell, Chandigarh, regarding information against Sanaullah Khan, Superintendent, Department of Excise and Taxation, Chandigarh, and to investigate the matter regarding submission of a fake graduation certificate by Khan.

The CBI had stated that Khan posed himself as an inspector, Excise and Taxation, UT, and collected illegal gratification from the markets of Chandigarh. On this matter, a report from the Deputy Commissioner-cum-ETC, Chandigarh, was called.

The court stated that it was clear that the marksheet in the name of accused Sanaullah Khan was a forged document. The court stated that Sanaullah Khan submitted a fake BA degree to his department to get promotion and he got it.

“It is clear that Khan had not applied for higher education nor he had appeared in the examination and the document in question is a forged document, which he got prepared in connivance with other accused persons and further, it has also come on record that accused Khan in connivance with accused Arun Kumar and SS Balkhi has got the documents verified illegally,” said the court.