Politician fakes UP CM's signature for poll ticket, handwriting lands him in trouble

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a letter from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recommending that Shivaji Yadav be chosen as one of the BJP candidates in the bypolls to the state Assembly.

The only problem was that Adityanath never wrote such a letter and an investigation has now claimed that the aspirant himself wrote it after his "close friend", whose cover he used for the suspected forgery, identified Yadav's handwriting on the envelope.

The CBI has last week registered a case against Yadav on charges of impersonation, cheating and forgery following an investigation of more than one year.

Eleven seats had fallen vacant in UP Assembly after MLAs won Lok Sabha elections. Bypolls were scheduled for October last year while jockeying for seats had started much before the bypoll schedule was announced.

It all started with the Prime Minister's Office cross-checking with Adityanath whether he wrote a letter dated June 10, 2019, to recommend the name of Yadav for a ticket in the bypoll. The letter had reached the PMO almost a fortnight after the Lok Sabha results were announced.

As soon as the PMO found out that the letter was fake, Assistant Director (PMO) PK Issar wrote to the CBI on August 8 last year seeking an enquiry. A preliminary enquiry was ordered on September 26, 2019.

During the preliminary enquiry, investigators found out that the letter was sent by speed post from Badalpur sub-post office in Jaunpur district on June 13, 2019. The records showed that one Sandeep Singh of Marajganj was the sender and a mobile number was given.

The investigators traced Singh, who vehemently denied that he was the sender of the letter. The twist in the tale came as Singh identified the handwriting on the envelope as that of Yadav.

Singh and Yadav are "close friends and neighbours" and their wives were batch-mates at Singhania University where they were pursuing BEd.

Investigators also claimed that they found out that the mobile number mentioned for booking the speed-post belonged to Yadav. Singh also told the CBI that the number belonged to Yadav.

The CBI then analysed the call data records (CDR) of another mobile number, which was being used by the accused, and found out that it was in the vicinity of the sub-post office on June 13 last year, the date on which the forged letter was sent.

"Prima facie, (this) shows that the said forged letter was sent through speed post by him only," the CBI FIR said quoting the preliminary enquiry report submitted by Additional Superintendent of Police Sanjay Sharma.

The analysis of Yadav's mobile also showed that he was in constant touch with one Vishal Yadav.

Vishal told the CBI that Yadav was working as an agent for preparing caste certificates, domicile certificates, income certificates, etc and he had a laptop and colour printer.

He also told the investigators that Yadav was "fond of politics and was trying for a BJP ticket for the bye-election for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2019", the FIR claimed. Vishal also identified Yadav's handwriting on the envelope.

The CBI, Delhi registered a case on the basis of the report submitted by its Lucknow office.