In the world of law enforcement, a Station House Officer’s (SHO’s) signature on a chargesheet is supposed to represent the seal of integrity. But for former Sub Inspector Kavita Mathur, it became the smoking gun in a career-ending forgery case.

On Thursday (April 2), a judge in Dwarka court convicted the former Delhi Police officer, finding her guilty of forging the signatures of her seniors — an Assistant Commissioner of Police and an SHO — on multiple chargesheets in 2015.

“In the present case the accused’s role as IO (Investigating Officer) in the very cases in which the forged signatures appear creates a strong inference that she had both the opportunity and means to affix or cause the signatures to be affixed,” Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Saurabh Goyal of Dwarka Court said in his judgment dated April 2.

“Her alleged act of tearing the signature page when confronted, followed by the making of threatening remarks, strengthens the inference that she acted with the requisite mens rea (Latin for ‘guilty mind’). The evidence shows that documents were in her custody and control; the accused had been the IO who handled the files which later bore forged signatures,” the court said.

Mathur was facing trial for the offences of forgery and criminal intimidation among others. The allegations against her pertained to the year 2015, when she was posted as an SI in Palam Village police station.

The police’s case was that Mathur had forged the signatures of then ACP M Harsha Vardhan (Dabri police station) and then SHO Niyati M Kashyap (Palam Village police station) on chargesheets of multiple cases.

It had also been alleged that on July 23, 2015, she committed criminal intimidation by sending an SMS from her mobile phone to the then ACP saying “Sir, maine bahut koshish ki main sab baton ka samna karun lekin ye mere liye bahut mushkil raha..main kisi ko face nahi kar pa rahi hu…maine aapke sign karke koi mukadma cancel nahi karwaya…sab log mujhe ajeeb tareeke se dekh rahe hain..main court face nahi kar pa rahi…mera sara career aapki FIR ne khatam kar diya…main suicide kar rahi hu…”

As part of the investigation, the police examined Kashyap, Harsha Vardhan, then Inspector Meena Yadav, an expert from the Central Forensic Science Laboratories (CFSL), and the court record keepers who tendered certified entries showing the filing of chargesheets.

“…Documents bearing the contested signatures were presented to judicial institutions. When an accused files with a Court a document which contains false signatures purporting to be of public functionaries, and when this is done by the accused in her official capacity as an IO, the offence moves beyond private deception to an attack upon the sanctity of judicial records,” JMFC Goyal said in the judgment.

The prosecution had essentially produced four pieces of evidence, which the court found to be “coherent and consistent”.

They were ‘testimonies’ by the supposed signatories that they had not signed; DD (Daily Diary) entries which recorded objections at the time; the CFSL report identifying the signatures as non-genuine; and Mathur’s conduct, including the alleged act of tearing the contested page and the sending the intimidating message.

Then Inspector Yadav had stated before the court that the accused had torn the page and threatened her when she confronted her.

“These elements, when read together, are credible and substantial corroboration for the proposition that forgery occurred and was used by the accused,” the court said.