Thane, Feb 25 A Thane court has sentenced a 36-year-old Sri Lankan national to one-year rigorous imprisonment for illegally staying in India.
After completion of the sentence, the accused, identified as Arumahaddi Janith Madusangha D'silva alias Podi Lessi, should be deported to Sri Lanka, Additional Sessions Judge Vasudha L Bhosale said in the order passed on February 20.
The court convicted the accused under relevant provisions of the Foreigners Act, but acquitted him of several other charges, including cheating and forgery, citing a lack of substantive evidence.
It sentenced the accused to rigorous imprisonment for one year, one month and six days - the exact period he has already spent in custody since his arrest in January 2025 - and also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on him.
The court further directed the Thane police commissioner to deport him to Sri Lanka.
It ordered that the mobile phone seized from the accused be auctioned and the proceeds forfeited to the government, while the bogus Aadhaar card and SIM card recovered from him be destroyed.
The prosecution's case was that D'silva was found residing at a hotel in Kashigaon, Mira Road, in Maharashtra's Thane district without a passport or visa on January 13, 2025.
During the trial, the accused claimed he was Indian and falsely implicated, but failed to provide any documentation to support his claim.
The court said the burden is on the accused to prove that he is not a foreigner. He has to prove that he is an Indian citizen by adducing cogent evidence. In this respect, no evidence is adduced by the accused, it noted.
The judge, however, said the police failed to prove charges of forgery and cheating against the accused.
"The mere mention of penal provisions in the FIR is not substantive proof of their commission... No evidence has been led to show that the accused deceived any individual, induced any authority by false representation, or caused wrongful loss to any person," she said.
No forged passport, visa or fabricated document has been seized; no forensic or handwriting expert has been examined. The mere non-production or absence of a passport at the time of the raid cannot lead to a presumption of forgery or cheating, the judge observed.
The court also acquitted the accused under Section 14A of the Foreigners Act, noting the prosecution failed to prove the area where he was found was a "prohibited or restricted" zone as per government notifications.
