STATE Vs. RAMESH KUMAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Criminal Appeal is filed by the State being aggrieved by the acquittal of the accused who were tried for offences under Ss. 465, 466, 468, 471, 420 of I.P.C, Sec. 65 of Information Technology Act and Sec. 477-A read with Sec. 120-B of I.P.C as against the respondents.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that, Ramesh Kumar (A1) was working in Computer Sec. of ELCOT Company at Dharmapuri. He was employed by ELCOT Company to design Driving License and laminate. A2 (Bagyalakshmi) is resident of Dharmapuri appointed by ELCOT Company to coordinate with RTO Office, Dharmapuri. Aravind Kumar (A3) and Senthil Kumar (A4) were expert in Computer Technology and assisting Ramesh Kumar (A1). Govindaraj (A5), Mahendran (A6) and Natarajan (A7) were brokers at RTO Office. Vijjiram (A8) was Assistant in RTO Office, Dharmapuri and Shanmugam (A9) is Superintendent, RTO, Dharmapuri.

(3.) All these accused between 19/8/2002 and 12/7/2004 conspired to fabricate false Driving Licence and cheat the Government. Pursuant to the said conspiracy, the genuine signatures of RTO were scanned and used for fabricating forged Driving Licences. For the said purpose, A2 (Bagyalakshmi) who was posted by ELCOT Company to work in RTO Office, collected details in the Computer maintained at RTO Office and passed it to Ramesh Kumar (A1), who with the help of A3 and A4 prepared fake Driving Licenses and same was sold through accused 5 to 7 for Rs.2000.00 each. To add authenticity to the fake Driving Licences, genuine holograms entrusted by the Government to A8 and A9 were used. A8 (Vijjiram) and A9 (B.Shanmugam), who were in-charge of holograms entrusted by the Government for the RTO, Dharmapuri had been stealthily given it to A1 to A4, without maintaining the account for the holograms. The fake driving license manufactured in the names of (1).Malaalappan S/o.Parasol Alex, (2).Sankar S/o.Kaliappan, (3).Lakshmanan S/o.Muthusamy, (4).Magesh S/o.Lakshmanan (5).Thirunavukkarasu S/o.Govindan, (6).Pooncholai S/o.Periyasamy, (7).Kumar S/o.Pachiappan, (8).Balaji S/o.Shanmugam, (9).Venkatesan S/o.Ramanadhan (10).Silambarasan S/o. Mani, (11).Mohammed Nasir S/o.Salim (12).Shanmugam S/o.Raman (13).Murugan S/o.Kaliappan, (14).Baskaran S/o.Adhimoolam (15).Kabali S/o.Rajagopal, (16).Sekar S/o.Magalingam, (17).Durai S/o.Chinnasamy, (18).Paramasivam S/o.Kaliappan, (19).Muniappan S/o.Ramalingam, (20).Jayaraman S/o.Perumal, (21).Loganayagam S/o.Kandasamy (22).Sivaraj S/o.Chinnasamy (23).Murugasan S/o.Govindhan, (24). Mariappan S/o.Ramalingam, were sold for Rs.2000.00 each, thereby created loss to the exchequer. The driving license for the above persons were given without proper driving test and procedures.