Shimla: Having produced an allegedly forged judgement of the Himachal Pradesh High Court for advancing a career in the governments PWD department has landed Kuldip Rao, brother of former congress minister Rangila Ram Rao and a conniving lawyer Haresh Sood, behind bars.
Confirming the duo’s arrest, Sonal Agnihotri, SP Shimla said, “After seizing the forged documents and registering a case, both Rao and Sood were taken into custody late on Wednesday.â€
Rao, an executive engineer (XEN) with the state roads project is said to have produced the forged judgment before principal secretary PWD.
It was a tip off which alerted the police that Rao was using the forged judicial order to get a suspension in service period for the year 2006 revoked by means of the fake document.
The engineer was arrested and put under suspension for being allegedly involved in buying a question paper of combined pre-medical test (CPMT) for his child in order to secure a seat at medical college, Shimla.
While in the infamous CPMT case of 2006, which involves several others parents, is still to be decided by the sessions court Rao’s suspension had been revoked but the blemish on the record was coming in the way to get a promotion as superintending engineer (SE), sources disclosed.
Acting on the tip off, investigators did an online search of the High Court’s website to ascertain the antecedent of the forged judgment, checked out with the registrar general of the High Court and as it became clear that there was no such judgment that had acquitted the accused in CPMT case, the police arrested him.
On being confronted with the fake documents, Rao named Sood as the one who had manufactured the fake judgment. Subsequently the lawyer was also arrested.
The lawyer’s computer and laptop have been seized. “The forged documents have been sent for forensic examination,†said Agnihotri.
Suspecting a wider racket about forged judgments in circulation, the police chief said that investigators were probing whether this was an isolated case or there is more to it.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
What a shame!!! The investigators should go to the root of this and punish these shameless people severely.