Man facing trial for cheque dishonour booked for ‘forging medical reports to skip court appearance’

A man, who is facing trial in a case of cheque dishonour, has been booked for skipping court appearances by allegedly forging medical reports showing himself as ailing.

The suspect, Vijay Kumar Srivastava, who is yet to be arrested, is facing trial in a case of cheque dishonour of ₹2.51 crore before the court of judicial magistrate Vivek Singh, police said. He had sought exemption from court appearance on August 29 and October 4, claiming he was unwell, and had submitted medical reports as proof.

The court allowed the exemption the first time, but when the same prayer was made for the second time, the court observed that the prescription had the letterhead of a pathological laboratory located in Jhilmil, Delhi, police said. The prescription recommended a ‘strict bed rest for two weeks’ for Srivastava, police said.

A senior police officer said it was then that the court suspected foul play as a doctor never uses a laboratory letterhead to prescribe medicines. “On October 6, the court directed is to inquire into the matter and submit a report,” said the police officer, adding that the two laboratories were approached whose letterheads were on the prescriptions submitted before the court, and it surfaced that both were forged.

“The two doctors whose signatures were on the reports were approached. They also submitted written applications to us alleging that their forged signatures were used to prepare the reports,” said the officer.

The matter came up for hearing on November 1 when the inquiry report was submitted, after which the court ordered police to register a first information report (FIR) against Srivastava for allegedly forging documents to seek favorable orders.

An FIR against Vijay Kumar Srivastava was registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using a false property mark) of the Indian Penal Code at Shivaji Nagar police station on Thursday night, said police.

Srivastava could not be reached for comment.