NEW DELHI: A Delhi court convicted a former sub-inspector for forging signatures of senior police officers on chargesheets and filing them in court, terming her action “an attack upon the sanctity of judicial records”.
Judicial Magistrate Saurabh Goyal also found SI Kavita Mathur guilty of sending a threatening message to a senior officer. The judge held her guilty of committing forgery of public documents and using them as genuine for deceiving official processes.
According to the prosecution, the accused was posted as an SI at Palam village police station in 2015 when she forged signatures of the then assistant commissioner of police and the then station head officer on several final reports and charge sheets relating to FIRs.
She subsequently filed these documents before the court as genuine despite knowing that the signatures of the senior officers were forged.
While convicting the accused, the judge took note of the direct testimony from the purported signatories, independent corroboration by witnesses, the CFSL scientific report, the court record entries, and the accused’s demonstrated conduct, which pointed “cogently to the accused’s culpability”. The court further noted that the accused had custody of the case files in her capacity as investigating officer, giving her the opportunity to manipulate the documents.
“When an accused files with a court a document which contains false signatures purporting to be of public functionaries, and when this is done by the accused in her official capacity as an IO, the offence moves beyond private deception to an attack upon the sanctity of judicial records,” the judge said.
The judge said that the defence offered no credible alternative explanation which could dispel the chain of incriminating circumstances. “The cumulative effect of prosecution evidence leads to the inference that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt,” the court said.