Sant Kabir Nagar Police in Uttar Pradesh registered a case of cheating and forgery against BJP MLA Rakesh Singh Baghel on orders of a court after he allegedly produced a fake Covid-19 positive report.
Sant Kabir Nagar chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Hargovind Singh has also been named in the FIR registered on Saturday at the Kotwali police station.
Baghel is an MLA from Mehdawal assembly constituency in UP's Sant Kabir Nagar district.
The MLA allegedly presented a fake Covid-19 positive report to avoid being present in the court in another case.
Khalilabad police station’s SHO Manoj Kumar Pandey said Baghel allegedly submitted a suspected fake Covid-19 infection certificate from a private laboratory to the special court of Additional Sessions Judge Deepkant Mani to avoid his appearance before it.
The CMO was booked on same charges for not taking action against the MLA after he was not found in home isolation by the district’s anti-Covid team. While the CMO told the court that the MLA went into home isolation after testing positive, an isolation team member, Dr Vivek Kumar Srivastav, said the legislator was not present at home and could not be contacted on the mobile phone either during the home isolation period.
The court order said that the MLA presented a fake Covid-19 positive report when asked about his absence in another case under the court's jurisdiction. The court proceedings are not moving ahead in the case as the MLA has not appeared in the court since the past four years, it said. When the court summoned him, he presented a fake Covid report, the order observed, ordering an FIR against the lawmaker.
The case has been registered against them under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 471 (using a fake document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code, Pandey said.
Quoting from the order, the police officer said MLA has not been appearing in the court for the last four years. "And when the court recently issued orders to him to appear before it, he submitted a medical certificate declaring himself to be infected with coronavirus, to evade his appearance, hindering the administration of justice," the SHO said, quoting the order.
