New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI): Cheating in Class X examination 15 years ago has caught up with a man, now a father of three, who has been sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a Delhi court.

Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjeev Kumar sentenced Asif to three years' imprisonment for offence of cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for having a juvenile impersonate him and appear in Social Science paper in 1998.

The court also convicted Asif's co-accused who was caught writing his test and was declared to be a juvenile at the time of offence. His case was forwarded to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and he was directed to appear before it on November 19.

Asif's plea for release on probation on the ground that he has to look after his father, wife, three children and that he was facing trial for last 15 years was also declined by the court.

The court, in its order yesterday, said reduction of sentence on ground of long pending trial is not justifiable. It, however, released him on bail till December 6.

Asif's co-accused was also held guilty on the same counts but the court did not pronounce a sentence against him.

Under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, proceedings pending against a juvenile in any court as the Act came into force shall continue. If found guilty, the court shall record its findings but not pronounce the sentence and instead forward the juvenile to the JJB for appropriate orders.

The prosecution case was that Asif and the co-convict entered into a conspiracy and on March 25, 1998 the juvenile impersonated himself as Asif and appeared in Social Science examination for class X conducted by CBSE at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Kailash Nagar.

Invigilator and vice-principal of the school also deposed in the court that on checking the roll numbers of the candidates during the examination, it was found that the picture affixed on the hall ticket was not of Asif as it did not match with other documents.

The court noted that the opinion of handwriting experts proved that the answer sheet of social science was written by the juvenile convict and not Asif.