By Amiya Kumar Kushwaha
New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) A Delhi court judge was shocked when jailed multi-crore-rupee "stockguru" scam accused Ulhas Prabhakar produced two forged invoices in the name of the judge and the prosecutor to demonstrate how easily a forgery can be done. The annoyed judge ordered a complaint to be registered against Ulhas and the matter probed.
Ulhas, who is facing several charges including money laundering, had produced two forged documents in the name of CBI Special Judge Gurdeep Singh and Enforcement Directorate special public prosecutor Navin Kumar Matta.
Judge Singh, who was hearing the matter, was shocked on seeing an invoice in his name of having paid Rs 1,000 to Ulhas's company Stockguru India (SGI).
He ordered Station House Officer (SHO) Tilak Marg police station to lodge a complaint against Ulhas for making the forged documents.
The incident came to light on Thursday while the court was hearing arguments on charges in the money laundering case against Ulhas and others.
Ulhas, in arguments to defend himself, claimed that documents filed by the ED against him were fake. He then produced the two forged printouts of invoices bearing names of Judge Singh and prosecutor Matta, according to court sources.
The judge wondered how Ulhas managed to get the forged documents made despite being in judicial custody.
Asked about it, Ulhas told the court that he obtained the invoices from a stamp vendor in Moti Nagar in West Delhi.
"It is apparently a cognisable offence which needs detailed investigation," the court said.
"Accordingly, SHO, police station Tilak Marg, is directed to investigate the matter and take necessary action," he said.
The court has fixed the matter for further hearing on July 21.
Ulhas, alias Lokeshwar Dev, his wife Priyanka Saraswat alias Raksha, and his aide Nitin Sinha along with his five Delhi based companies -- SGI Research and Analysis, SGI Securities, SGI Beverages Ltd, SGI commodities Pvt Ltd, and SGI Buildtech -- are facing trial in a money laundering case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.
ED has chargesheeted them under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for allegedly possessing over Rs 85 crore in moveable and immovable properties.
ED said that during investigation it was revealed that SGI floated a scheme promising high returns for a minimum investment of Rs 10,000 for which a amount of Rs 1,000 was to be paid as registration fee and the company issued a user ID for investors to deposit money.
"The intention behind floating so many companies was to create names of entities for rotating the funds obtained by cheating people at large and also give an impression to the investors that they are doing serious business and that their money was in safe hands," ED said.
The company Stockguru.India was started in 2009 and Ulhas and his wife were its directors.
Ulhas is also facing trial for duping people and was arrested along with his wife by the Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Delhi Police on November 10, 2012, from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.
Delhi Police has accused them of duping several investors across seven states of nearly Rs 500 crore by promising high returns through their firm Stock Guru India, dealing in stocks.
The duo had posed as doctors, investors, and businessmen and ran several fraudulent firms to dupe people, police said.
(Amiya Kumar Kushwaha can be reached at amiya.k@ians.in)
