Court clerk held for forging magistrate’s signature

Mumbai: The MRA Marg police have arrested a clerk with the Metropolitan Magistrate's court in Ballard Pier for allegedly forging a magistrate's signature on orders sanctioning the transfer of a case to another court.

According to the MRA Marg police, the accused, identified as Maruti Salunkhe (54), was arrested on Wednesday after the registrar at the court approached the police with a complaint against him.

Police officials said that the Ballard Pier court hears cases registered under the Negotiable Instruments Act, which deals with cases like cheque bouncing and other related offences. According to a recently introduced rule, the court has now started transferring some of its cases to other courts to reduce the backlog in cases.

“A private firm based in Mumbai is a party in one of the cases which is pending at the court, and earlier this week, the Honorabe Magistrate discovered that orders had been drawn up to transfer the case, which has been pending for over four years, to another court. He realised that his signature had been forged on the orders, and made inquiries, which led to Salunkhe,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, Zone I.

The police said that when the magistrate confronted Salunkhe, he allegedly confessed to have forged the signature on the transfer orders, which involved forging the signature in a total of 105 places, in exchange for money from some people from the company who had approached him.

Following the confrontation, the magistrate instructed the court registrar to file a complaint with the police, and Salukhe was subsequently arrested by the MRA Marg police. He has been booked for cheating, forgery and impersonation under the Indian Penal Code.

Investigating officers said that the possibility of Salunkhe having forged signatures on other orders in the past can not be denied and he is being interrogated in this regard. The police are also identifying the people who paid Salunkhe to forge the signatures, and they are likely to be arrested soon.