Janata Party chief booked after AAP MLAs say their signatures forged in his RS bypoll papers

In their complaint, the AAP MLAs said that a handwritten list of proposers, purportedly bearing their forged signatures, had been attached with the nomination papers filed by Chaturvedi and were being circulated on digital platforms. All the lawmakers categorically denied having signed or supported the nomination and alleged forgery.

“The forged documents, submitted before a constitutional authority, constitute a serious offence involving forgery, cheating, and criminal conspiracy,” a says Punjab Police spokesperson said, adding FIRs have been filed against Chaturvedi and unknown persons at different police stations in the constituencies of the complainant MLAs.

“The Punjab Police has taken serious note of the matter, considering it as an attempt to mislead constitutional authorities and the public by falsifying official election documents,” the spokesperson added.

The October 24 Rajya Sabha bypoll is being held to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of AAP’s Sanjeev Arora, who stepped down from the Upper House following his election to the state Assembly.

The ruling AAP, which has 93 members in the 117-member Punjab Vidhan Sabha, has fielded industrialist Rajinder Gupta, who filed his nomination papers on October 10.

On October 6, Chaturvedi filed his nomination papers for the first time as an Independent, claiming support of 10 AAP legislators. The MLAs Monday lodged a complaint with DGP Gaurav Yadav and returning officer for Rajya Sabha byelection, Ram Lok Khatana saying they did not endorse the candidature of Chaturvedi. Following this, Chaturvedi filed another nomination paper, this time endorsed by a different set of 10 AAP MLAs. This time, the endorsement has signatures.

The October 6 nomination paper caused a flutter within the AAP, when the MLAs had to explain to the party state chief Aman Arora and national convener Arvind Kejriwal that they did not endorse Chaturvedi’s candidature.

Interestingly, eight out of 20 MLAs named by Chautrvedi have endorsed Gupta’s candidature too. Wgile filing the nomnations for the first time, Chaturvedi had submitted the names of Rajnish Dahiya, Naresh Kataria, Sukhbir Singh Maiser Khana, Ranbir Bhullar, Gurlal Singh Ghannaur, Amolak Singh, Manjeet Singh Billaspur, Kulwant Singh Pandori, Gurpreet Singh Banawali and Kulwant Singh Bazigar. Out of these, Amolak, Pandori, Bilaspur, Bazigar and Banawali are also official endorsers of AAP’s Guta.

On Monday, Chaturvedi claimed 10 new endorsers including Madan Lal Bagga, Ashok Pappi Prashar, Dinesh Chadha, Gurdev Singh Dev Mann, Raman Arora, Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, Jasbir Singh Sandhu, Devinder Singh Laddi Dhos, Dr Vijay Singla and Fauja Singh Sarari. Three of these — Vijay Singla, Madan Lal Bagga, Pappi Prashar — have endorsed Gupta. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh is a rebel AAP MLA who has been suspended from the party. Raman Arora is also a rebel AAP MLA.

The complaint sent to the DGP by an MLA reads, “It has come to my notice that Navneet Chaturvedi, who claims to be associated with the Janata Party, has wrongfully used my name and is falsely claiming that I support him in filing his nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Punjab. I would like to state clearly that this claim is completely false, baseless, and misleading. I have never met Chaturvedi, nor have I ever extended any kind of support to him or his party. By misusing my name publicly, he has attempted to mislead the public, the Election Commission, and other authorities, thereby damaging my reputation and credibility as a public representative. Such false and fabricated claims amount to defamation, impersonation, and fraudulent misrepresentation, which have caused serious harm to my public image. Therefore, I request you to initiate an inquiry and register an FIR against Navneet Chaturvedi under the relevant sections of the IPC for spreading misinformation, impersonation, and defamation. Necessary legal action may please be taken at the earliest.”

The scrutiny of the nominations papers will be held Tuesday.