Two years on, CBI registers FIR in forged RTI case

Acting on a Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) complaint, the CBI has registered an FIR against unknown person for filing an RTI using the forged signatures of a TMC MP two years ago.

The forged RTI, seeking information in the name of MP Dr Ratna De, was sent to the PMO in 2015 but the case was registered only last month. Both De and CBI remained unavailable for a comment despite repeated attempts.

The FIR in the case steers clear of mentioning the contents of the RTI and instead takes cognizance of the letters written by the PMO to CBI and De as the premise for filing the case. According to the FIR, PMO deputy secretary Mayur Maheshwari had sent a letter to De on April 28, 2015, confirming that the signatures on the RTI in question were not hers.

“The said letter dated April 28, 2015 has been endorsed to the director, CBI... with a request to register for initiating investigation as per law,” reads the FIR.

The case, however, appears to have gotten murkier with time as evident by the manner in which the FIR has been written. On June 5, 2015, the CBI wrote a letter to Maheshwari informing him that when the agency approached De to issue a formal complaint, she showed reluctance and requested the PMO to file a complaint instead.

The case dragged till March 22, 2016, when the CBI sent a reminder to the PMO requesting that a formal complaint may be forwarded so that it can take further action. On August 17, Pritendra Kumar, joint deputy director in the PMO intimated that “as per the settled procedure followed in their office, the request sent to the CBI in the form of a communication from their office be treated as formal complaint”.

On March 31, the CBI filed an FIR under IPC Sections 419, 465 and 471.