Fake Passport Case: Big relief to Patanjali’s Acharya Balkrishna; CBI court acquitted in 15 year old case of fake passport, know what was the whole controversy

Acharya Balkrishna, General Secretary of Patanjali Yogpeeth and a key aide of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, has got a big relief in a 15-year-old high-profile legal dispute. Dehradun-based special CBI court (Third Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate), while giving its verdict in the case of obtaining Indian passport on the basis of alleged fake documents, has acquitted Acharya Balkrishna and co-accused Naresh Chandra Dwivedi of all charges.

The court said in its decision that the prosecution (CBI) has failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the charges leveled against the accused. With this order of the court, the nearly one and a half decade long legal battle that has been going on since 2011 has formally ended.

This entire episode dates back to the year 2011 when on the instructions of the Central Government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started a preliminary investigation on the basis of a complaint. In July 2011, the CBI registered a formal FIR under sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 468, 471 (use of fake document) of the Indian Penal Code and section 12 of the Passport Act.

CBI’s allegation was that the educational certificates presented by Acharya Balkrishna while getting an Indian passport from the passport office in Bareilly were doubtful and fake. The investigating agency claimed that these documents shown to be related to Radhakrishna Sanskrit College and Sampurnanand Sanskrit University located in Bulandshahr (Khurja) were not found in the records. Along with this, the agency had made the then principal of the college, Professor Naresh Chandra Dwivedi, a co-accused, accusing him of helping in preparing fake documents.

After the FIR was registered, during the investigation, in July 2011, the Uttarakhand High Court had put an interim stay on the arrest of Acharya Balkrishna and directed him to submit his passport to the court. After this, in 2012, CBI filed the charge sheet in the competent court.

Charges were framed in the case in October 2013 and a lengthy process of testimony and cross-examination followed. During this period, Balakrishna’s passport remained in the custody of the court for several years, which was later given back for renewal with the permission of the High Court in 2018.

The special CBI court, in its detailed order, underlined that there were several serious flaws in the evidence presented in the case:

• Invalidity of electronic evidence: The court found that the scanned copies of educational documents produced by the CBI were not certified as per the required legal provisions related to electronic evidence.

• Limitations in Handwriting Reports: The technical limitations of comparison on photocopies were also acknowledged in the handwriting examination report of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).

• Credibility of witnesses: Contradictions were found in the statements of some prosecution witnesses and important witnesses turned hostile, on the basis of which the court acquitted the accused by giving them the benefit of doubt.

After getting the clean chit from the court, Acharya Balkrishna called it a victory for truth and faith in the judiciary. Sharing his reaction, he said that for the last 15 years, an unsuccessful attempt was made to mentally torture him and tarnish his image through a false case, but ultimately the truth prevailed.

At the same time, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev also welcomed the decision and called it a historic day and said that the court has established justice by dismissing all the false allegations.