Perjury proceedings have been recommended against six persons for fabricating evidence and misleading the Court in a case of pilferage of heroin in which IPS officer Saji Mohan stands guilty. The former NCB director was awarded 13-year rigorous imprisonment by a local court,last week. Mohan was held guilty of pilfering 60-kg heroin from unclaimed seizures. The court of Additional District and Sessions Court of Shalini Singh Nagpal had initiated perjury proceedings against six people,including five witnesses,in the case. The sixth,an accomplice of Mohan,also stands guilty. Six people mentioned in the complaint include one of the convicts,Superintendent Balwinder Singh; M M S Bhandari,Intelligence Officer,NCB,Delhi; BSF Sub-Inspector Rakesh Roshan; Vijay Pal Singh,Head Constable,BSF Batallion,Kashmir; Virat Dutt Chaudhary,Assistant Commissioner (retd),Customs,Amritsar; and Pushpdeep Singh,Inspector Customs,Amritsar. Nagpal has written to the Chief Judicial Magistrate asking the latter to take suitable action under the Criminal Procedure Code. A copy of the complaint written by Nagpal read,These witnesses have knowingly and willfully fabricated false evidence for the purpose of being used in judicial proceedings. It is,therefore,necessary and expedient in the interest of justice that an inquiry should be made into the offence under Section 193 (false evidence) of the Indian Penal Code. The Court has observed that the seizure memo showing the sealing and sampling of 60 kg heroin seized on May 15,2008 at the Indo-Pak Border,was a false document. It was stated by M M S Bhandari on February 24,before the court that the process of opening the packets,sealing and sampling was done at the NCB office,Jammu Zonal Unit, read the complaint. The place of sealing and sampling of 60-kg heroin was wrongly recorded. Also,Bhandari is proved to have taken the signatures of Balwinder Kumar,Rakesh Roshan and Vijay Pal Singh on May 16,2008,but mentioned the date as May 15,2008,the complaint further read. Pushpdeep Singh,Inspector Customs,Amritsar,had stated during the trial of the case that two parties comprising 15 customs officials were constituted to hold a naka and 10-kg heroin was recovered being an unclaimed seizure. But,Naseeb Chand,a convict in the case,had stated in his statements that he had sold the 10-kg heroin to the customs officials after the former NCB director asked him to do so. The judge has mentioned in the complaint that,Virat Dutt Chaudhary and Pushpdeep Singh,being public servants were bound by oath as well as provisions of law to state the truth and not to make any statement which was false and which they knew or believed to be false or did not believe to be true. Both have knowingly and willfully given false evidence in the judicial proceedings by falsely stating on oath that recovery of 10-kg heroin on August 27,2008 from Ramkot,Amritsar district,was an unclaimed seizure. Chaudhary and Pushpdeep prepared a false document showing recovery of 10-kg heroin as unclaimed seizure,while the heroin was supplied by accused Naseeb Chand.
