The Allahabad High Court on Thursday upheld a trial court order convicting disqualified BJP MLA Indra Pratap alias Khabbu Tiwari and two others in a three-decade-old marksheet forgery case. On October 18, 2021, an MP/MLA court in Ayodhya found the three — Indra Pratap Tiwari, Kripa Nidhan Tiwari and Phool Chandra Yadav — guilty of forgery of marksheets to secure admission in a college in 1992. They were sentenced to five years in prison along with a fine. Dismissing the appeals of the three convicts, who are currently out on bail, Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh of the Allahabad High Court ordered the police to take them into custody to serve out the sentence as awarded by the trial court. “From the evidence led by the prosecution, the offences. are fully made out and proved against the accused-appellants and, the learned trial court has rightly convicted and sentenced the accused-appellants for the aforesaid offences,” Justice Singh said in his order on Thursday. The trial court had convicted the three under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record). Following his conviction in 2021, Indra Pratap Tiwari, then a BJP MLA from Gosaiganj in Ayodhya district, was disqualifiedfrom the Assembly membership. His wife, Aarti, was fielded by the BJP in the subsequent Assembly polls. She, however, lost to Samajwadi Party’s Abhay Singh. As per the case details, the principal of KS Saket Postgraduate College in Faizabad had filed a police complaint in 1992, accusing Indra Pratap Tiwari and two others of securing admission in BSC third year by using a forged marksheets of BSC second year, which they had failed to clear. The chargesheet was filed in the case on July 19, 1996, and the charges were framed on December 9, 2019, by the MP/MLA court. Representing the convicts, Senior Advocate IB Singh submitted that a common FIR was registered for three different incidents and a common chargesheet was filed against them. He further submitted that there was no allegation of criminal conspiracy and abetment. “…the accused-appellants were tried jointly in violation of the said procedure,” submitted Singh. “The documents produced before the trial court were not proved in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Evidence Act. The trial court had convicted them on the basis of the secondary evidence in gross violation of Section 65 of the Indian Evidence Act,” he added. Additional Government Advocate UC Verma told the court that the three had “never taken objection regarding the admissibility of the documentary evidence, which was produced by the prosecution and proved by the witnesses during the trial”. “.that the accused-appellants may be different, but they had committed an identical offence by taking admission in the next class on the basis of the forged and fabricated documents and by cheating the college,” Verma said. The additional government advocate also told the court that Indra Pratap Tiwari was a “mafia, gangster and dreaded criminal” and has 35 criminal cases against him. “His character is also important while deciding the appeal,” Verma added. In its order, the High Court said, “The technical objections taken at this stage have no relevance. The accused-appellants have forged their marksheets and took admission in the next class knowing it to be forged. Thus, they have committed the offences under sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC.”
