Accused appears in court after facing its wrath

New Delhi, Aug 24 (PTI) A retired government officer,chargesheeted along with underworld don Chhota Rajan in analleged fake passport case, today appeared in a special court,a day after it expressed displeasure over her absence andordered that she should be present on every date. The accused appeared today after the court yesterdayexpressed annoyance over her absence. It noted that whileprosecution witness T Rajashekara was standing in the courtthe whole day and being questioned by her counsel, LalithaLakshmanan was "enjoying the cool comforts of home". "It is seen that cross examination of prosecution witness25 (Rajashekara) by accused number 4 (Lakshmanan) iscontinuing the whole day. It is not a good situation thataccused number 4 is enjoying the cool comforts of home and thewitness is standing in the court the whole day." "Therefore, I direct that accused Lalitha Lakshmananshall appear in person at 10 am and shall remain present inthis court on each and every date," the judge, who isconducting the trial on a day-to-day basis, had said. Lakshmanan was granted bail by the court on March 14,along with two others — Jay Shree Rahate and Deepak NatvarlalShah — after they had appeared before the court in pursuanceto the summons issued to them. Rajan is currently in thejudicial custody. The court had earlier framed charges for alleged offencesof cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy against all thefour accused in the case. CBI has alleged that these officers had allegedly ignoredrules and regulations of verification while issuing a passportto the underworld don on the basis of fake identity andaddress. The four accused have been charged under sections 420(cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 468(forgery for purpose of cheating), 467(forgery of valuablesecurity or will), 419(cheating by impersonation) and 120B(criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and section 12 (offences andpenalties) of the Passport Act. Besides this, the court has also framed charges againstthe retired officials under the Prevention of Corruption Act.PTI UK SKVARC