Delhi Court orders Romesh’s release in passport case

NEW DELHI, JUNE 2: Romesh Sharma, alleged frontman of Dubai-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was on Friday ordered to be released unco...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 2: Romesh Sharma, alleged frontman of Dubai-based underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, was on Friday ordered to be released unconditionally by a Delhi court in a CBI case relating to fraudulent procurement of passport for Dawood’s mother to help her flee the country soon after the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) R K Gauba ordered Sharma’s immediate and unconditional release following CBI’s submission that the evidence collected during the probe so far did not establish his complicity in the case.

But Sharma would continue to be lodged in Tihar jail as he is in judicial custody in several other cases.

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The CMM, however, made it clear that CBI was at liberty to arrest Sharma again with prior permission of the court in the event of fresh evidence coming to light against him.

The court took cognisance against Arvind Kumar Bali, the only accused sent up for trial in the chargesheet filed by the agency on Monday, and issued him summons for June 9.

Strangely enough, CBI had not sent the names of Sharmaand his aide Vinod Kumar Luthra for trial saying there was `paucity of evidence’ against the two accused.

Luthra was never arrested in the case while the case against Dawood’s mother Amina Bi was abated following her death last year.

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Though the probe against Sharma (and Luthra too) was still continuing, CBI did not seek extension of Sharma’s remand leaving the court with no option but to order his release.

The then Regional Passport Officer R K Khanna had issued a short validity passport to Amina Bi on a recomendatory note issued by the Consular and Passport visa Division of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in July 1993.

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