Action comes after MiD DAY's report that court had ordered the GRP to book 2 hawkers for allegedly forging a bail bond and blaming RPF officials for the act to exact revenge
The government railway police (GRP), CST have registered a first information report (FIR) against hawkers Pradeep Agrawal alias Sonthalia and his associate Santosh Kumar Singh. Sonthalia and Singh have been accused of forging bail bond papers to ‘malign the image of railway protection force (RPF), Mumbai’.
On the run: The main accused, Pradeep Agrawal alias Sonthalia, allegedly runs a hawker network on the Central Railway line, and was unhappy with the RPF action on it. File Pic
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On Thursday, the GRP registered the FIR under Sections 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 182 (false information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person), r/w act Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
“On directions from the court, I have registered an FIR against Sonthalia and Singh. I will submit the report to the court,” said Janardan Kolekar, Inspector, CST, GRP.
On March 28, Metropolitan Magistrate N P Mehta ordered the GRP to register the FIR on the basis of allegations levelled in a complaint by RPF PSI Jasbir Singh Rana.u00a0Rana had alleged that the accused duo prepared fake bail bonds using a counterfeit seal and a rubber stamp of RPF, Mumbai.
The court passed this order on the basis of an investigation report submitted by RPF Inspector Anil Sharma.u00a0Meanwhile, the Shivaji Park police at Dadar have arrested Santosh Singh, alias Bablu Thakur (28), in another robbery case.
There are 12 offences registered (copy with MiD DAY) with them against both Sonthalia and Singh.u00a0Singh (28) had complained on February 25, that the RPF caught him while he was crossing the railway tracks at CST, and released him after executing a bond of Rs 500.
He claimed that the bail bond was fake. But police investigations revealed that Sonthalia and Singh were the ones who had colluded to forge the bond papers to put the RPF officials in a spot.
Sources alleged that this was a reaction to the RPF crackdown on the hawker network operating under Sonthalia’s patronage on the Central Railway line. The duo is absconding at present.u00a0
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