Mumbai police book lawyer for forging documents to appear as public prosecutor

The Mumbai police has booked a lawyer for allegedly forging documents to appear as a public prosecutor before the Bombay High Court and other courts in the city in multiple cases against a builder, an official said on Monday.

Based on a complaint lodged by builder Sanjay Punamiya, newswire PTI reported, the police on Sunday registered a case under sections 420 (cheating) and 465 (forgery) and other relevant provisions of the IPC against lawyer Shekhar Jagtap, builder Shyamsunder Agrawal, Sharad Agrawal and Kishore Bhalerao, deputy secretary of the state home department, and others, the official said.

Punamiya was arrested in July 2021 in the Rs 15 crore extortion case registered against former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and others at Marine Drive police station.

The complainant has alleged that after his arrest in the Marine Drive case, Jagtap was present before the court on July 22, 2021, to represent Shyamsunder Agrawal as a private lawyer.

During the second hearing in the case, the accused lawyer submitted a letter before the court, which mentioned that he was appointed as a special public prosecutor in the case and in another case registered against gangster Chhota Shakeel, Agrawal and others, the official said quoting the first information report.

As per the FIR, Jagtap posed as a special public prosecutor and appeared for eight hearings in the high court.

The complainant has alleged that the accused lawyer created hurdles in the investigation to help Shyamsunder Agrawal and others in the case, the official said.

Punamiya used the Right to Information (RTI) and requested information about the cases Jagtap was assigned to appear as a special public prosecutor, the FIR stated.

The home department, in its reply in August 2023, stated that Jagtap was appointed as a special public prosecutor for two extortion cases registered at Marine Drive and Mumbai Crime Branch`s Unit-9, and the appearance was limited to these two cases at the Quilla court as well, but he attended the sessions court and cheated the court and the government, the official said.

The accused advocate appeared as a special public prosecutor in the high court, sessions court and Thane district court by producing forged documents, and thereby cheated the state government, he said.

Jagtap, meanwhile, claimed that he was appointed by the concerned authorities to appear as a special public prosecutor in the cases he appeared in. “I also received letters from the law and judiciary department ratifying my appointment as special public prosecutor,” he said. (With inputs from PTI)