Kripashankar's son-in-law forged documents for domicile: Cops

MUMBAI: The Anti-Corruption Bureau, while probing the assets of Congress leader Kripashankar Singh and his family, had found that Singh’s son-in-law Vijay Pratap Singh, years ago, submitted forged documents to get an apartment in Powai, an officer said. The police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) is now considering whether to register a separate case against Vijay.
Vijay, who is a native of Uttar Pradesh and is married to Singh’s daughter Sunita, was “working with the Public Works Department of the Jharkhand government in 2002 when a flat in a private building in Powai was transferred in his name,” a source said. The apartment was originally allotted under the chief minister’s quota to Singh, who requested that it be transferred to his sonin-law, the source added.
But for Vijay to be eligible for the flat, he was required to be domiciled in Maharashtra. In other words, he was required to have stayed in Maharashtra for 15 years. The source said, “Vijay provided forged documents to prove the domicile.”
The ACB began looking into the Powai flat since the property was mentioned in a disproportionate assets complaint it received against Singh and his family. During its investigation, when the ACB went searching for documents related to the flat’s transfer in official archives, it was told that the files were missing. When the bureau questioned Vijay on the apartment, it was told that he had submitted authentic documents for the transfer. He was, however, unable to produce the documents since it was an “old issue”. He said he had sold the property in 2006.
The source said the ACB, thereafter, obtained documents from Jharkhand, which “established that Vijay was working there when the flat was transferred to him”. The bureau made a mention of the apartment’s handover in its report submitted to the Bombay High Court in March 2011.
EOW officers are now considering whether to register a separate case against Vijay or continue investigating him under the case that was filed against Singh and his family. Both police chief Arup Patnaik and the head of the Special Investigation Team probing the case, additional commissioner of police (EOW) Rajwardhan Sinha, refused to comment.