India, Jan. 9 -- Thirty-six years after they were booked for possession of 12 counterfeit $100 notes, the sessions court on Monday discharged two men after finding that the investigating officer of the case had died, two main witnesses were untraceable, and the original reports received from the US treasury about the fake bills were missing, along with the case record.

"The evidence produced on record is not sufficient for proceeding against the accused in the absence of the original documents," said additional sessions judge RB Rote while discharging Ramsingh Kisansingh Thakur, a Nepalese national, and Mumbai resident Cliford Santana Fariya, of all the charges levelled against them.

The crime branch had apprehended Thakur at MRA Marg i...