Model Noor acquitted

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23

More than six years after city-based model Noor Kataria was arrested in a fake licence case, a local court today acquitted her of all charges of impersonation and forgery.
She was arrested on May 23, 2008, when a fake licence was recovered from a flat in Sector 38, owned by Baljinder Singh, the key accused in the sensational Anuradha murder case. The prosecution had stated that Noor stayed in that flat, but it could not be proved and was denied by Noor.
Noor, who was then a BA-II student at Government College, Sector 11, was arrested in the fake licence case five days after the sensational Anuradha murder case was reported on May 18, 2008. The police had arrested Anuradha’s husband Baljinder Singh, alias Talla, for the murder of Anuradha in Sector 38 and Talla’s alleged affair with Noor was said to be the reason behind the crime. The fact that Noor was the motive behind the Anuradha murder was also mentioned by the court in the judgment sentencing Talla to life imprisonment in 2010.
According to the prosecution case, Noor had been staying at Baljinder’s flat in Sector 38. A search of the flat had led to the recovery of certain documents, including a copy of Noor’s licence, stating her residential address in Amritsar. The subsequent investigations by the police revealed that Noor had never stayed there and had given a fake address to obtain the licence.

The police had arrested her to “tie” the loose ends in the murder investigations to nail Baljinder, interrogate her and make her a witness in the case. However, Noor  had turned hostile in the court during the hearing of the Anuradha murder case.

She was acquitted today in a case under Sections 420, 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC.

Defence counsel Terminder Singh stated before the court that the case of fake licence against her was baseless and she possessed a genuine licence made in Chandigarh and was not aware of any other licence in her name. “The licence was not recovered from her. The police had stated that she purchased a SIM card on the basis of that licence. However, the prepaid mobile number was never used by her and the picture on the mobile application form was also missing, nor had she signed on that form,” said Terminder Singh.