Allahabad High Court Upholds Conviction Of Former BJP MLA Indra Pratap Tiwari In Fake Marksheet Case

The Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench has recently upheld the conviction of the former BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) Indra Pratap Tiwari in a fake marksheet case. The said MLA preferred an appeal against the order passed by the Trial Court wherein he was convicted for the offences under Sections 420, 468, and 471 of the IPC.

A Single Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh held, “From the evidence lead by the prosecution, the offences under Sections 420, 468 and 471 IPC are fully made out and proved against the accused-appellants and, the learned trial court has rightly convicted and sentenced the accused-appellants for the aforesaid offences.”

The Bench said that the accused shall be taken into custody to serve out the sentence as awarded by the Trial Court.

Senior Advocate I.B. Singh appeared for the appellant while AGA U.C. Verma appeared for the respondent.

In this case, three appeals were filed against the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge. The appellant was booked while getting himself admitted to a college along with other accused based on fake marksheets.

The accused were alleged to have forged the marksheets and fabricated the documents in a criminal conspiracy. The Principal of the college filed a complaint with the SSP which resulted in the registration of a crime against the accused.

The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel observed, “A document in terms of Section 65 of the Indian Evidence Act is to be proved by a person, who is acquainted with the hand writing of the author thereof. P.W.1 Mahendra Kumar Agarwal, P.W.-2 Ram Bahadur Singh and P.W.-3 Srikant Pathak have proved the documents i.e. Paper Nos.4A/6 and 6A/1, 6A/3 and 6A/5 and 6A/6 and 6A/7 as they were acquainted with the hand writing and signatures of the then Principal Yaduvansh Ram Tripathi and the Sub-Inspector Ram Bahadur Singh.”

The Court further disagreed with the counsel for the accused that the documents were not proved in accordance with the provisions of Section 65 of the Indian Evidence Act.

“The technical objections taken at this stage have no relevance. The accused-appellants have forged their mark-sheets and took admission in the next class knowing it to be forged and thus, they have committed the offences under Sections 420, 468 and 471 IPC. The forgery was done with obvious purposes of utilizing the mark-sheets to secure admission. The accused-appellants are not in a position to say that they were prejudiced in any manner by common FIR, one charge sheet and same charge for all three accused-appellants and one trial. The allegations are identical. Witnesses were common, who had proved the documents and deposed in support of the charge”, asserted the Court.

The Court said that the plea has no substance and hence directed that the bail bonds of the accused shall be cancelled.

Accordingly, the Court dismissed the appeals and upheld the conviction of the accused.

Cause Title- Indra Pratap Tiwari v. State of U.P.

Click here to read/download the Judgment