MP: Dead lawyer, 2 others booked for sending 'forged letter' to HC judge

The HC ordered a probe into the letters which talk about the accused in the sexual harassment case, an inspector, paying a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to seek bail in Jabalpur advocate suicide case.

Bhopal: Police on Wednesday arrested three persons, two of them lawyers, for allegedly sending two forged letters to the Madhya Pradesh High Court using the name of a woman constable who had filed a sexual harassment case in Jabalpur against her senior, an official said. The HC has ordered a probe into the letters which talk about the accused in the sexual harassment case, an inspector, paying a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to seek bail, he said.

The three accused, including lawyers Omkar Patel (40) and Shivnarayan Vishwakarma alias Pappy (55), were arrested on charges of sending forged letters in the name of the woman constable to the HC in connection with a bail matter of jailed Inspector Sandeep Ayachi, said Additional Superintendent of Police (City) Gopal Khandel.

Another accused in the case, advocate Anurag Sahu, has died, the official said. Khandel said the arrests were made after investigation revealed forged letters were sent to the HC in the name of the woman constable, who had filed a sexual harassment complaint against Inspector Ayachi, currently in jail.

The letters, sent to the HC through post, mentioned Ayachi giving a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to seek bail in the case, the official said. The reference of these letters, dated September 26 and September 29, 2022, was given during hearing on Ayachi’s bail in the court of Justice Sanjay Dwivedi, and the HC has ordered a probe into the episode, he said.

The police official said after attending the hearing on Ayachi’s bail plea on September 30 in the HC, one of the accused lawyers, Sahu, had allegedly committed suicide at his residence.

A case was registered against the four accused persons under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections related to cheating, cheating by personation, forgery, criminal conspiracy and defamation, among others, at the Civil Lines Police Station of Jabalpur, he said.

After Sahu allegedly committed suicide, a group of angry lawyers had staged a protest in the HC compound, where they vandalised and torched the chamber of the advocate who had appeared in the court against Sahu. (With agency inputs)