No SC relief for K'taka professor who 'forged' PM, President's letters

In a case showing how craze for social media likes could land one in serious trouble, a management guru and writer of several books from Karnataka faced charges of forging letters of President and Prime Minister and posting those on his Facebook account.

The Supreme Court has dismissed his plea for anticipatory bail in view of misdemeanour alleged on his part. "Why you do have to do all this? Why you forged letters of Prime Minister and President," a bench of Justices N V Ramana and S Abdul Nazeer told advocate Sanjay M Nuli, appearing for Prof Hari Krishna.

The court declined to accede to the counsel's plea that the academician was ready to surrender before the Delhi
police authorities, if he was granted protection from arrest. His plea that if he is not enlarged on bail, his hard-earned reputation and image would be tarnished, was also not accepted.

Though he claimed a false case has been foisted on him and there was no likelihood of his fleeing in view of deep roots in society, the top court remained unbudged. He also submitted that he was ready to furnish whatever documents were required by the investigating agency. He also pleaded that he did not make any commercial gain out of the alleged offence. The top court, however, showed no leniency to him.

Hari Krishna challenged a Delhi High Court order of November 15, 2017, declining him any relief. The trial court has also rejected his similar plea for anticipatory bail on August 9, 2017.

An FIR was registered by the Delhi police's Ecnomic Offence Wing on May 18, last year on a complaint sent by the President's secretariat.

The President's office has received an email from one Shekhar Bhattacharjee, contending that Dr Hari Krishna has been flaunting a forged appreciation letter from President on his Facebook account to promote his book on digital marketing. It later transpired that a similar forged letter of commendation by the Prime Minister was too posted on Facebook account by the petitioner.