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Senior Court Reporter
AN Indian has admitted to forging a marriage certificate stating he had wed with a local woman as he wanted permanent residence in Zimbabwe.
Kalva Shashank (28) admitted to forging a marriage certificate to remain in the country on spouse resident permit when he appeared before magistrate Mrs Yeukai Dzuda at the Harare Magistrates Court.
He was charged with violating the Immigration Act.
Miriraishe Zoe Dirorimwe, co-accused of conniving to forge the marriage certificate to appear as if she was married to Shashank, denied the charges when they jointly appeared in court. She denied ever forging the certificate with the help of a business consultant, Nash Mashaka, who is also charged with assisting people to enter, remain in, or depart from Zimbabwe.
After Dirorimwe and Mashaka denied the charges, the State led by Mr Thomas Chanakira, applied for separation of the trials. Mr Chanakira wants Shashank to separately appear in court to record his guilty plea while Dirorimwe and Mashaka jointly appear for their trials.
They are all expected back in court on January 3.
The court heard that on October 7, Shashank entered the country through Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and was issued a holiday visa valid to November 7 2022.
During his stay, Shashank allegedly connived with Dirorimwe to acquire a fake marriage certificate so he could acquire a spouse’ residence permit.
On October 25, the three now in court went to Immigration headquarters in Harare where they submitted a fake marriage certificate while applying for a spouse resident permit for Shashank.
Mashaka is said to have charged US$500 for his consultation after Shashank and Dirorimwe approached him for assistance in getting the permit.
The court heard that immigration officials noted that the marriage certificate No. 0654/2022 was different from other marriage certificates and requested its verification at the Judicial Service Commission.
It was then discovered that it was fake, as it was not in their registers.
Online Reporter