HC quashes 11 fake marks card cases against accused

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: Noticing that the accused were implicated in a fake marks card case only on the basis that the main accused named him in his confession statement, the High Court of Karnataka has quashed 11 cases against him.

“The petitioner has been implicated solely on the confession statement of the accused No.1, and in the absence of any corroborative material to substantiate that fabricated marks card were obtained from the petitioner herein, the continuation of the criminal proceedings only on the basis of the confession statement of the co[1]accused which is inadmissible in law as stated under Section 25 of the Evidence Act, will be an abuse of the process of law,” Justice Hemant Chandangoudar said in his recent judgement quashing the case pending in a Tumakuru trial court.

The eleven separate petitions were filed by the accused; M Amarendra, which was heard by the single judge bench and disposed in a single judgement.

Amarendra aka Ambareesh was accused under Sections 420. 468, 471 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The prosecution accused that the candidates who were aspirants for the post of village accountant in 2012 had submitted fabricated marks cards.

One person was arrested in the case and he made a confession that it was Amarendra who had provided the fake marks cards.

So even though his name was not in the FIR, Amarendra was included as an accused when the charge sheet was filed.

Even earlier, the HC had quashed four similar cases against Amarendra by noting that “A perusal at the summary of the charge sheet or all the materials that forms the contents of the charge sheet would nowhere indicate that the parties has any role to play in the fabrication of the marks cards. The entire allegations against the petitioner is on the voluntary statement of accused No.1, who appears to have deliberately dragged the petitioner into the scene of crime without being an iota of corroborative material to corroborate the voluntary statement of accused No.1.”

Considering this earlier judgement, the bench of Justice Hemant Chandangaoudar quashed all the eleven cases pending against Amarendra before the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Tumakuru.

End/- CrlP 11725/2023 and connected matters.