J&k Medical officer gets two year jail term for filing false RTI applications

Srinagar: A court in Srinagar has convicted a medical officer from Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) of two years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 419 and 471 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) for committing fraud by impersonating someone else and submitting a forged document as genuine while filing a right to information (RTI) application.  

Regarding the failure to pay the fine by the doctor, the court imposed an additional 6 months of imprisonment in case of non-payment of the fine. The accused doctor of Jammu and Kashmir was convicted by the Court of 2nd Additional Munsiff Ahtzaz Ahmed on Tuesday for filing an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the name of another person and using it as a ‘genuine’ document.

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On October 30, 2013, a complaint was filed by then Director ISM that a medical officer was transferred to Udhampur in Jammu division for misconduct and harassment and the accused was harassing the officials of the department by filing multiple RTI applications, UNI reports. It was alleged that the accused was using different names so that he could escape from the departmental enquiry and could put pressure on officers of the Department. 

The Director said the ISM department received a chain of RTI applications with identical language, filed under different names of Muzaffar Anwar Ganie - son of Dr Tantray's landlord in Srinagar, who denied filing the application. Following the complaint, a case was registered in police station Saddar and investigations were taken up.

The court issued its ruling after considering the arguments put forth by the prosecution. According to Kashmir News Service, the prosecution, led by Advocate John Mohammad sought the maximum sentence, citing the impact of the crime on the general public and emphasizing that the convict was a repeat offender. In contrast, the defence attorney, M.A. Peerzada, advocated for a more lenient approach highlighting that the accused was approaching retirement. 

“The prosecution has proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt to the extent that the accused had cheated the officials of department of ISM by pretending to be Muzafar Ahmad Ganaie by filing an RTI application in his name and thereby using a forged document as genuine. As such, the accused is hereby convicted for offences of cheating by personation and dishonest use of forged document,” observed the court. 

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