A Delhi Court has convicted a man for fabricating an official letter bearing the name of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, falsely seeking a BJP ticket for himself from the Lucknow Cantt constituency in the 2019 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Jyoti Maheshwari of Rouse Avenue Courts delivered the conviction on charges of forgery and fraudulent use of a forged document, a verdict that carries sharp significance at a time when the misuse of constitutional offices for personal political gain demands the full weight of judicial response.
The conspiracy unravelled from a single letter dated June 10, 2019, purportedly authored by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and addressed directly to the Prime Minister's Office, recommending that the accused, Shivaji Yadav, be granted a BJP ticket from Lucknow Cantt. The PMO, however, found the communication suspicious and flagged it for scrutiny, triggering a CBI investigation that conclusively established the letter had never originated from the Chief Minister's Office and was a complete fabrication.
Yadav had dispatched the forged document to the PMO while knowing it to be false, brazenly invoking the name and constitutional authority of the state's highest executive to lend credibility to a manufactured political endorsement. When confronted with the incriminating evidence, he failed to offer any plausible explanation.
ACJM Jyoti Maheshwari left no ambiguity in her reasoning, holding that the CBI's investigation was thorough and the evidence on record conclusively established Yadav's guilt under Sections 465 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. The Court identified a deliberate and calculated scheme, not merely a clerical fraud, but a direct assault on the sanctity of official governmental communication by weaponising the identity of a constitutional functionary for personal electoral benefit. The judge's observation cut to the moral core of the offence, "The misuse of the names of public functionaries is often dismissed as trivial, yet when it assumes the form of a forged official act, it strikes at the very foundation of public trust."
Concluding that guilt was established beyond reasonable doubt and that the law must necessarily follow where evidence of deliberate deception is clear, the Court convicted Shivaji Yadav on both charges.
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