Document naming CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in MP-PEB scam is fake: SIT

JABALPUR: The special investigation team monitoring the investigation into MP Professional Examination Board scam today submitted its report to the Madhya Pradesh High Court saying that a cyber expert tried to drag Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the row using a forged document.

The HC accepted the report and asked SIT to take action against the expert.

The expert, Prashant Pandey, is mentioned as `Mr X' in court records.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh had relied on the document produced by Pandey to target Chouhan.

Singh had repeatedly accused STF of carrying on prosecution on the basis of a doctored excelsheet in which names of Chouhan and some others had been struck out. However, SIT said the original document given by Pandey was a fabrication.

SIT today submitted the preliminary report to the division bench of Chief Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice Alok Aradhe, stating that the excelsheet and a pen drive submitted by Pandey were fabricated pieces of evidence.

Pandey submitted the forged document to influence the probe being carried out by a special task force, it added.

The judges, satisfied with the report, said SIT was free to launch necessary proceedings against `Mr X' (Pandey) for this.

Pandey had submitted the excelsheet and pen drive to the Delhi High Court. He had alleged that STF was carrying out the investigation on the basis of doctored excelsheet which originally mentioned Chouhan but later the name was removed.

He had also said that he did not want his name to appear on the record because he feared for his life. The Delhi High Court directed that the document should be handed over to MP High Court. The latter asked SIT to examine it.

The original excelsheet was recovered from the computer of a top MPPEB official Nitin Mohindra now in judicial custody.