Lawyer Denied Anticipatory Bail in Document Forgery Case

A court in the city has rejected the anticipatory bail application of a 60-year-old lawyer charged with facilitating the creation of forged trust documents. The court emphasized the expectation of 'care and integrity' from the lawyer, given his thirty-year career as a notary.

The order, delivered by additional sessions judge NG Shukla, noted that the trust's chairman, whose signature was allegedly forged, had been incapacitated in a hospital. Despite this, documents suggest he signed the notary register, which the court found unlikely.

The lawyer, Ramji Gupta, is being prosecuted for cheating, forgery, and criminal breach of trust by Mumbai's Economic Offences Wing. Inconsistencies, such as overwriting in the notary register, led the court to determine that Gupta's custodial interrogation is essential.

(With inputs from agencies.)