11 years later, driving licence forgery accused gets acquitted

Panaji: Eleven years after two men were accused of forging a driving licence for registration of a new motorcycle in Mapusa, a north Goa court acquitted one of the accused Vaman Dessai.
The first accused Birbal Gurjar, in whose name the forged driving licence was produced as genuine at the office of the assistant director of transport prior to August 2009, Mapusa for registration of a new motorcycle, already expired.
The prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Dessai had forged the driving licence, the court found.
The original specimen writing which was sent to the handwriting expert was misplaced during the shifting of the police station, the investigating officer submitted to the court.
The court was told that the handwriting on the questioned signature as well as on the specimen tallies with each other and is the same as that of accused Dessai, but the court found other missing links in the case.
“The questions as to how, why and where did accused Dessai forged the said licence which was allegedly used by Gurjar remained unanswered. Nothing has come on record which would answer the said questions. Even the relation of Gurjar and Dessai, or how the latter came in possession of a MDL allegedly forged by Gurjar is not come on record in the prosecution evidence,” the court stated.
It added that except for the report of the handwriting expert, there is no other evidence that links the accused to the present offence.
“As such though, the handwriting experts opinion is relevant and can be used for corroborative purposes but in the present case the linking facts of the case have not been brought on record by the prosecution so as to make the report of the handwriting expert reliable in order to establish the prosecution case beyond reasonable doubt,” stated Judicial Magistrate First Class, 'F' Court, Mapusa, Teisy Mascarenhas.