Uttar Pradesh IT commissioner faces arrest for forgery

The police had earlier charge sheeted Bhartendu Pratap Singh in a case of forgery involving misuse of letter-heads of two MPs and somelegislative assembly members to cook up complaints against two senior women officials of his own department.

According to the police, "While the MPs flatly denied having made any such complaint and even disowned the letter-head, one of the MLAs admitted to having given away some of his blank letter-heads to one of his associates who in turn confessed to having passed these on to Singh." The arrest warrant was issued Nov 4, after the court recorded statements of witnesses.

However, the case was kept under wraps because of the undue influence wielded by the official, whose father-in-law Akhand Pratap Singh was a former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary.

Akhand Pratap Singh, after being voted as one of the three "most corrupt IAS officers", was also charge sheeted and sent to jail by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for committing forgery and amassing wealth to the tune of hundreds of crores.

Asked why no action was being taken against the commissioner, a top policeman of the state told IANS: "The arrest could not be made as the commissioner has since been absconding." However, sources alleged that the income tax commissioner was being shielded by a top rung official in the Mayawati government.

Meanwhile, the investigating officer has confirmed "misuse of letter-heads bearing the names of MPs Zafar Ali Naqvi and Dhananjay Singh as also MLAs Sunder Singh and Ganesh Shankar Pandey, who have admitted to having given the letterheads to someone."