The Bombay High Court (HC) has strongly criticised the CBI for submitting a negative report to the passport authority about Jigna Vora despite her acquittal. The order, given on Monday and released in full on Wednesday, shows that the court found the CBI’s report in direct contradiction to the actual events and expressed dissatisfaction with their letter to the Regional Passport Office, which led to the rejection of her passport application. The court has granted Vora permission to reapply for a passport.

“In these circumstances, the CBI ought to have been fair and ought to have accordingly given a report, instead of stating that the case matter is still pending in CBI and her file should not be cleared, when in fact, there was no proceeding pending before any court of law, at the relevant time. Neither has the learned counsel for the CBI been able to point out, what were the proceedings which were pending before the CBI at the time when such a report was forwarded to the respondent regional passport office. Therefore, the report given by the CBI to the passport authority was clearly contrary to what had really taken place,” the court said in its order.