Shiv Sena Faction Alleges Fabrication of Documents in Disqualification Hearing

Mumbai: The Eknath Shinde faction on Thursday alleged that the Uddhav Thackeray faction has produced fabricated documents in the hearing on disqualification petitions against MLAs. The lawyers of the Shinde faction urged speaker Rahul Narwekar to order a police investigation into the matter.

Shiv Sena (UBT) legislator Sunil Prabhu, who is being cross-examined by advocate Mahesh Jethamalani in the disqualification petitions before the Speaker, had on Wednesday informed that an email was sent to Mr. Shinde on June 23, 2022 stating that the legal action will be initiated against him for not attending a meeting held by then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on the previous day. A copy of the said email was submitted to the Speaker.

However, the Shinde action on Thursday claimed that the printout of the alleged email, which was submitted to the Speaker, is a fabricated document. An official from the Shinde faction said,

“On scrutiny of the printout of the alleged email, we found that it was sent to the email account 'eknath.shinde@gmail.com' which never belonged to Mr. Eknath Shinde. It is also evident that the alleged e-mail was never delivered to Mr. Eknath Shinde.”

The official further said that their counsel has filed an application before the Speaker to conduct an inquiry into the alleged forged and fabricated e-mail produced by Mr. Prabhu and requested him to direct an investigating agency to conduct a free and fair investigation into the matter.

In the application filed before the speaker, the Shinde faction has claimed that the said email email id eknath.shinde@gmail.com has never existed. “The test email sent by advocate Chirag Shah has bounced back with the remark “address no found”.

“It is most humbly submitted that Mr. Prabhu has fabricated the said document, merely to substantiate his false allegations, against the Respondent (Eknath Shinde). It is also evident from Mr. Prabhu’s testimony in which he categorically admitted that this letter was sent in the English language as it could be needed for some “legal purpose”. The applicant most respectfully states that the said e-mail dated June 23, 2022 is one of the documents which Mr. Prabhu and his aides have planted to substantiate their bogus allegations against the Respondent,” the Shinde faction has stated in its application.