Four booked for forging documents

Thane: Four people, including a lawyer and a notary, have been booked for allegedly forging documents and submitting them in a court to obtain pre-arrest bail in a cheating case, police said on Thursday.

Amit Lakhanpal (33), a businessman, and his associate Komal Shirsat (25) were earlier booked by the Chitalsar police in Maharashtra’s Thane district for cheating under various Indian Penal Code sections (IPC), Thane police spokesperson Sukhada Narkar said.

They were also booked under provisions of the Chit Funds Act, the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) (MPID) Act and the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The duo got two affidavits made by advocate Prashant Mali and notarised by D R Kudrigi, and submitted them before a local court in 2018 to seek pre-arrest bail in the cheating case against them, she said. However, the investigating officer in the case raised doubts over the authenticity of the affidavits.

The court then ordered an inquiry and during verification, the police found that the documents were allegedly forged to mislead the court, Narkar said.

The police also mentioned that the two business partners were not in the country when the affidavits were made, she said.

Based on the inquiry report, the Thane Nagar police on Wednesday registered offences against the four persons under various IPC Sections, including 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document), she said, adding that no arrest was made so far.