Mumbai court discharges ex-vice principal of law college in forged degree case

Mumbai court discharges former law college vice principal in forged degree case due to lack of evidence.

A Mumbai court has discharged the former woman vice principal of a law college here in a 2007 case about the alleged use of a forged B.A. degree to get admission in the institution, noting there is no material to remotely suggest she tampered with the document.

The charge-sheet against the accused advocate is filed with the "presumption" that she prepared a false document. There is no sufficient evidence to frame the charges against her, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Esplanade court) Vinod Ramrao Patil said in the judgment on February 9.

The prosecution alleged that Chitra Salunkhe used a forged Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree while taking admission in the L.L.B. and L.L.M. courses in Siddharth Law College.

Ms. Salunkhe, then being the college's vice principal, submitted a false and forged certificate to get admission. She did not pass the BA examination and hence committed cheating and forgery, the police charged.

The case had led to her termination as vice-principal of the college.

Mr. Salunkhe, through her lawyer, contended that the allegations against her were groundless. Some high-ranked police officers falsely implicated her in the crime, she submitted.