Srinagar: A city court on Tuesday convicted an Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) doctor on charges of cheating by impersonation while filing an application under the Right To Information (RTI) Act allegedly using different names to avoid being identified.
Adjudicating the case filed by the State through Police Station Sadder Srinagar the 2nd Additional Munsiff, Ahtzaz Ahmed, convicted Dr Zahoor Ahmad Tantray, son of G A Tantray, a resident of Kupwara. The medical officer was convicted for offences punishable in terms of RPC sections of 419 (cheating by personation) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document).
The judge recorded “the prosecution has proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt to the extent that the accused had cheated the officials of department of OSM by pretending to be Muzafar Ahmad Ganaie while filing an RTI application and thereby using a forged document as genuine”.
It posted the case on Wednesday for hearing the arguments on the quantum of sentence to be imposed upon the accused.
A case was filed against the accused doctor on October 30, 2013 on the basis of a communication received from the then Director, ISM.
It stated that the accused, putting up in a rented accommodation in Bemina Srinagar, was transferred from Unani Dispensary Gulab Bagh to Unani Dispensary Khanaid, Udhampur, because of his “misconduct”.
The medical officer was harassing the officials of the department by filing RTI applications under different names so that he could escape the “departmental enquiry” and to pressurize the officers of the department, it said further.
As per the communication, the department grew suspicious on receipt of the chain of RTI applications on “stereotype readymade format” filed by him by impersonating as different persons.
The medical officer, as per the communiqué, had filed one of the applications in the name of Muzaffar Anwar Ganie, who happens to be the son of the owner of the house where the doctor was residing.
The department sent a copy of RTI application to Muzaffar Anwar Ganie, who on its receipt, contacted the department and refused to have sought any such information.
Similarly, the communication said, another RTI application in the name of one Mohammad Ashraf Ganaie was received against the officers who were conducting an inquiry against the accused doctor.
The communication stated that the doctor actually wanted to escape from the departmental enquiry and harassed and distressed the officers and employees of the department.
The accused has been directed to be detained at Central Jail Srinagar.
