Man gets two yrs jail term for forging Rajiv Gandhi's sign

NEW DELHI: A man accused of forging the signature of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment by a Delhi court as it confirmed the lower court verdict.

Additional Sessions Judge Rajneesh Gupta, upheld the conviction of one Madhur Kishore Bhatnagar and further confirmed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him for fabricating a letter with forged signature of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi which was posted to the President in July, 1985.

As per the CBI, the letter contained a purported demand of Rs 80 lakh by late Gandhi from one DK Jain, Inspector, State Bank of India and was posted with the intent to harm his reputation.

The copies of the said letter were also sent to few newspapers for giving wide publicity, it had alleged.

The probe agency, after preliminary investigation, had filed a charge sheet against Bhatnagar, a resident of Moradabad, in February, 1988.

He had approached the Sessions court against the verdict of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, who had in March, 2005, sentenced him to two years' imprisonment after finding him guilty under various provisions of the IPC including Sections 417 (cheating), 469 (forgery for the purpose of harming reputation) and 471 (using forged documents).