Srinagar: A routine passport renewal application led to the unravelling of what a court in south Kashmir has described as a case of deliberate impersonation, prompting directions for criminal prosecution of the alleged impersonator and a departmental inquiry against police officials who investigated the original case.
In an order passed last month, Additional Special Mobile Magistrate, Pahalgam, Shyam Kumar held that a man facing trial in a 2024 road accident case had allegedly concealed his identity and appeared before investigators and the court under the name of another individual, whose Aadhaar details were allegedly used in the proceedings.
The matter came to light after Javaid Ahmad Malik, a contractor from Checki Kamad in Anantnag district, applied for re-issuance of his passport and was informed that an adverse police report existed against him because a criminal case was pending in his name at Pahalgam. According to the order, Malik then approached the court and discovered that he was reflected as an accused in a charge sheet despite having no connection with the accident in question.
The court recorded that Malik alleged that Zahid Akbar Mir, who had earlier worked as a site engineer on one of his projects and had access to his personal documents, had misused those documents while concealing his own identity before law enforcement agencies and the court.
The order notes that the court sought a verification report from the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Pahalgam. During the inquiry, police examined the circumstances surrounding FIR No. 41 of 2024, which arose from a collision between a Santro car and a Tavera vehicle near Ganeshbal on July 15, 2024. The case had been charge-sheeted against, among others, a person identified in court records as Javaid Ahmad Malik.
According to the SDPO’s findings reproduced in the order, the inquiry revealed that Zahid Akbar Mir had allegedly misled the investigating officer by producing a photocopy of an Aadhaar card belonging to the complainant and disclosing a false identity at the time of arrest. The inquiry further recorded statements indicating that Mir had previously worked under the complainant and had access to his documents.
The report stated that investigators seized Mir’s original Aadhaar card, driving licence and voter card and recorded statements of witnesses who, the order says, “unanimously” confirmed his actual identity and residence.
The magistrate went beyond the police verification report and conducted a preliminary inquiry after noticing what the order termed “serious irregularities concerning the identity” of the second accused in the accident case.
According to the order, lawyers who had represented the accused informed the court that the individual had allegedly misrepresented his identity even to them and had executed a vakalatnama in the complainant’s name. Court staff, the investigating officer, the surety and the surety’s identifier also stated that the accused had participated in proceedings while presenting himself under the false identity, the order records.
After hearing the accused through counsel and examining the judicial record, the court concluded that there was prima facie material indicating that forged documents had been used and that the accused had participated in proceedings under another person’s identity.
The order states that the accused had allegedly filed a photocopy of an Aadhaar card carrying the complainant’s particulars while affixing his own photograph, signed legal documents in the complainant’s name, executed bail bonds under that name and signed a statement before the court using the same identity.
The court, in its order, said it was prima facie satisfied that the accused had “intentionally misled this Court” by impersonating another individual during judicial proceedings, executing documents in a false identity, and producing forged records, thereby interfering with the administration of justice.
The magistrate held that the accused’s “true identity” was Zahid Akbar Mir and that the earlier description of him as Javaid Ahmad Malik had occurred “solely on account of deliberate misrepresentation by the accused person before the Court during the trial in FIR No. 41 of 2024 … and due to the casual investigation”.
The court directed that all judicial records in the accident case be corrected to reflect Mir’s identity and ordered that future proceedings continue against him under his actual name.
It also directed initiation of separate proceedings for offences relating to impersonation, forgery, false evidence and obstruction of justice, observing that it was “expedient in the interest of justice” that the accused be prosecuted.
Significantly, the court clarified that the complainant was not an accused in the 2024 FIR and stated that the passport authority would be at liberty to process and issue his passport if he was otherwise eligible.
The court also directed police authorities to remove the complainant’s name from all police records relating to the case and substitute the particulars of the person it identified as the actual accused.
Calling it a matter of “grave judicial concern”, the magistrate observed that the investigating officer had completed the investigation and filed a charge sheet without verifying the identity of the accused. The order states that the “blind acceptance” of a photocopy of another person’s Aadhaar card without basic verification reflected “gross negligence, dereliction of duty, and a complete disregard for established investigative procedures”.
The Senior Superintendent of Police, Anantnag, has been directed to initiate a departmental inquiry against the investigating officer and the then Station House Officer of Police Station Pahalgam. The SSP has also been asked to issue an advisory and standard operating procedure requiring rigorous verification of the identity of accused persons through original documents or biometric authentication before final police reports are filed in court. (KDC)
