BJP MLA gets five years in jail for forgery

Ayodhya: Indra Pratap Tiwari, popularly known as Khabbu Tiwari, BJP MLA from Gosaiganj in Ayodhya, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by a special court in a 28-year-old case of using a fake mark sheet to get admission in college.

Special judge Puja Singh delivered the verdict on Monday and Tiwari, who was present in the MP/MLA court, was taken into custody and sent to jail.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs 8,000 on him.

Indra Pratap Tiwari a.k.a Khabbu Tiwari was elected from the Gosaiganj assembly constituency.

The case was lodged against Tiwari in 1992 by the then Principal of Saket Degree College in Ayodhya, Yaduvansh Ram Tripathi, at the Ram Janambhoomi police station.

According to the FIR, Tiwari, who failed in the second year of graduation, took admission in the next class by submitting a fake mark sheet in 1990.

The charge sheet was filed after 13 years in the case.

Several original documents disappeared from the records and the trial continued with the preparation of secondary copies of all the court documents.

The complainant, Tripathi, also died during the trial.

Mahendra Kumar Agrawal, the then Dean of Saket College, and other witnesses testified against Tiwari.