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FIR against Lucknow jail convict for forging jail officials’ signatures to sell land
Jail officials came to know about this fraud on October 20, 2022 when the EOW called them to enquire about it
Nearly two months after getting a complaint, the Lucknow police on Tuesday night lodged an FIR against Asif Naseem, the brother of Shine City group of companies’ managing director Rashid Naseem. Both siblings are accused of duping gullible investors of over ₹1,000 crore. Asif is charged with fraud and forging signatures of jail officials while being lodged in Lucknow district jail, to prepare his power of attorney allegedly to sell his land through associates.
The power of attorney is a legal authorisation given by a person to another to make decisions about the former’s property.
The investigation into the multi-crore fraud by the Shine City group of companies is being done by UP Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and jail officials came to know about this fraud on October 20, 2022 when the investigation agency called them to enquire about selling properties on behalf of the power of attorney given by Asif Naseem that was verified by them.
Asif Naseem is lodged in Lucknow district jail for over one year now and his power of attorney was prepared by forging signatures of jail officials in August earlier this year.
The jailor of Lucknow district jail, Rajendra Singh has given a complaint in the matter at the Gosaiganj police station soon after coming to know about this fraud and even sent reminders in this regard but the FIR was lodged on Tuesday (December 20). The FIR was lodged against Asif Naseem under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 419 for cheating by impersonation, 420 for fraud, 467 for forging of documents, 468 for using forged documents for cheating purpose and 471 for using forged documents as genuine.
The jailor mentioned in the FIR that his signatures were forged for verifying documents as well as the stamp of the jail is also not clear and this needs to be investigated thoroughly to ascertain the real facts.
Earlier, the prison administration and reform services headquarters had ordered an inquiry into the incident that was initially handed over to the DIG, jail administration and reforms services headquarters, Shailendra Kumar Maitreya. The inquiry officer was later changed and the inquiry was handed over to deputy inspector general (DIG), prison, Varanasi, SK Singh. The inquiry officer was changed on the directions of the state government on November 16 after Lucknow district jail officials reported about the biased approach of Maitreya.
