Forged PMO letter: CBI arrests absconding accused

NEW DELHI: CBI has arrested an absconding accused who had submitted a forged letter of the then Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office allegedly in a bid to secure admission into an engineering course at a Lucknow college.

Farhan Akhtar, a resident of Mau district of Uttar Pradesh, had allegedly submitted the forged letter of the then Joint Secretary in the PMO, Sanjay Mitra, dated July 31, 2010, to the vice chancellor of Lucknow's Integral University recommending that he be given admission in an engineering course.

Vice Chancellor SW Akhtar suspected the genuineness of the letter and referred the matter to the PMO, which informed him that the letter was forged.

Officer on Special Duty in the PMO, KL Dhingra, had filed a complaint with CBI in this regard in April, 2011, following which the agency registered a case of cheating on October 7, 2011.

"After investigation, a charge sheet was filed on June 28, 2013, against said accused (under charges of cheating and forgery among others)... in the Court of Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI Cases, Lucknow. A supplementary chargesheet... was filed on March 7, 2014, against said accused and another accused in the court," stated a CBI spokesperson.

She said that in the event of non-appearance, the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him.

"After sustained efforts, the accused was traced and arrested in Hyderabad. The arrested accused was produced before the Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI Cases, Lucknow and remanded to judicial custody," she added.

Akhtar was earlier arrested in the case on November 21, 2012, and released on bail after three days.