The Madhya Pradesh police have booked four persons including an advocate, whose death ignited arsoning and violent protest by lawyers in MP high court on September 30, for forgery and defamation, said police.
Three advocates and a court employee posted two fake letters in the name of a rape survivor accusing a few judicial people of taking bribe to grant bail to rape accused Sandeep Ayachi, who was a town inspector (TI) from Katni.
Before the death of the advocate, the court had ordered to probe the matter of two fake letters received by the court administration on the day of bail hearing of Aayachi. The advocate died by suicide probably due to fear of getting exposed, said Siddharth Bahuguna, superintendent of police, Jabalpur.
Police probed the matter and claimed that three advocates fraudulently drafted the letter and posted two letters from Civic Centre Post Office and Railway Station Post Office on September 26 and 28.
“The letter was written in the name of the survivor but in the probe it was found that the advocates wrote the letters to take revenge. The advocate, who died by suicide, was defending Ayachi but later Ayachi’s wife hired a senior advocate. The advocate felt offended and hatched a conspiracy so that Ayachi didn’t get bail,” said Bahuguna.
Police registered an FIR against the accused under Sections 182 (false information with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating dishonestly), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using documents dishonestly as genuine ), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 120 b (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On the day of hearing, the court judge suspected the role of advocate in the letter. The advocate latter went to his home and hanged himself from the ceiling fan of the room. The fellow advocates staged protest accusing the senior advocate and judge for the suicide. They also set the office of the senior advocate on fire. Later, more than 50 advocates were booked for arsoning, rioting and obstructing a public servant from discharging his duties. The advocates also called a bandh on October 1.