Author prints fake letter in former President Pranab Mukherjee’s name, arrested

Delhi Police said he was arrested from Bengaluru, almost a year after they received a complaint from Rashtrapati Bhawan.

An MBA and BPharma graduate who had allegedly printed a fake appreciation letter supposedly received from former President Pranab Mukherjee to digitally market his book was arrested by the Delhi Police’s cyber cell on Thursday.

Early last year, Delhi Police received a complaint about Hari Krishna Maram using a fake appreciation letter with former President Pranab Mukherjee’s name on it. (Ajay Aggarwal/ HT Photo)

Police said he was arrested from Bengaluru, almost a year after they received a complaint from Rashtrapati Bhawan. Police said the accused Hari Krishna Maram,48, a Bengaluru resident, had fled to the US to evade arrest and had returned to India recently.

According to police, in early 2017, they received a complaint about Maram using a fake appreciation letter with the former President’s name on it.

An official, who had worked in the office of Mukherjee when he was the President, confirmed that the President House had filed a police complaint.

“ After receiving the complaint, we started tracing the man. During the probe, we learnt that Maram runs a management college in Bengaluru . He also claimed to be the vice-chancellor of Universal Digital University. When we started tracing him, we learnt that he has fled to the US,” a senior officer from the Delhi Police’s cyber cell said.

The officer police were in process of declaring him a proclaimed offender and seizing his properties when they received inputs on Wednesday about his return to India.

After ensuring that Maram has returned to Bengaluru, a team was rushed to the city and he was arrested from his residence on Thursday. He was brought to Delhi the same day, police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (cyber cell) Anyesh Roy said Maram had been booked under sections 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register, etc) 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 477 (fraudulent cancellation, destruction, etc., of will, authority to adopt, or valuable security) of the Indian Penal Code.