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The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Mumbai crime branch on Monday gave a clean chit to additional director general of police Deven Bharti and retired senior police inspector Deepak Phatangare in a passport case. On the other hand, it filed a 500-page chargesheet against Reshma Khairati Khan, wife of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Hyder Azam Khan, in the 37th metropolitan magistrate court.

Sources said there was no evidence against Bharti and Phatangare and the allegations against the duo in the FIR were made with ulterior motives. Reshma will be prosecuted for forging her birth certificate and giving it to the passport authorities. However, the sources said the allegation that she was a Bangladeshi national was found to be false and she belonged to Bihar.

The chargesheet talked about the sections dealing with forgery, forgery purpose for cheating, forgery of record of court or of public register, forgery of valuable security, and using as genuine a forged document or electronic record under the Passports Act, 1967.

The Malwani police had in December 2021 registered a case against Bharti, Reshma, and Phatangare under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Passports Act.

Bharti, who was the joint commissioner of police (law and order) at the time, was booked for allegedly pressuring an inspector from special branch I to not pursue the matter against Reshma. She was accused of obtaining an Indian passport illegally with the help of a bogus birth certificate. The 1994 batch IPS officer is currently posted in the Maharashtra State Security Corporation.

Phatangare, who was then attached to Malwani police station, had allegedly not taken action against Reshma on the instructions of Bharti. The case was later transferred to the CIU.

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