MUMBAI: The Colaba police has booked an advocate, a suspended deputy secretary in the home department and a builder for allegedly forging letters that claimed the lawyer was appointed special public prosecutor in matters related to the builder. Shekhar Jagtap, the lawyer, appeared as special prosecutor in court in several cases and tried to help Shyam Sundar Agrawal, the builder, including by arguing against bail for a rival builder, said police officials.
The forged letters, signed by deputy secretary Kishore Bhalerao, came to light after Sanjay Punamiya, the rival builder, filed a right to information application. On Monday however, Jagtap filed a criminal writ petition before the Bombay high court seeking quashing of the FIR against him.
According to the police, in February 2021, an FIR was registered against Agrawal and gangster Chhota Shakeel for extortion and criminal intimidation, based on a complaint by Punamiya. Sections of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) were added in the case later and it was transferred to the crime branch, followed by the state CID. Meanwhile, when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was in power, several cases were registered against Punamiya and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh based on complaints lodged by Agrawal.
According to Punamiya’s latest complaint, in January 2022, Jagtap appeared as the special public prosecutor in the case where Agarwal and Chhota Shakeel were charged under MCOCA, and tried to get the case closed, said a police officer.
“The investigating officer had sought the court’s permission to match voice samples of Chhota Shakeel with the caller’s voice. But Jagtap appeared in the matter as SPP and requested the court to reject the application, so as to help Agarwal. He even wanted to close the case,” said the officer.
Punamiya further claimed that Jagtap appeared as SPP in cases registered against him in Thane’s Kopri police station and Mumbai’s Marine Drive police station, which resulted in the rejection of his bail and anticipatory bail pleas.
“As he had doubts, Punamiya called for the appointment letters of Jagtap as SPP in some of the matters under the Right to Information Act and found that he had never been appointed to the post. He then complained to the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, following which Jagtap submitted two appointment letters,” said the police officer. Punamiya afterward found out that there was no mention of the letters, bearing the signature of Bhalerao, in government records, the officer added.
Based on his complaint, the Colaba police booked Agarwal, Jagtap and Bhalerao under sections 170 (personating a public servant), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating ), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Jagtap, however, said that on Monday, he filed a criminal writ petition before the Bombay high court seeking quashing of the FIR against him. “The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa has already rejected the preliminary inquiry filed by Punamiya, saying that the State had not filed any case. “All the appointments were legal and as per procedure,” the petition contended, claiming all the allegations against him were baseless, false and perverse. “The complainant is a seasoned litigant haunting and taunting not only persons against whom he is fighting a series of frivolous litigation, but also his own lawyers and lawyers on the opposite side as well as the judges,” the petition added.
The police claimed Bhalerao had been suspended over this matter.