‘Woman lawyer fabricated court, police records’

A woman lawyer has been arrested on charges of fabricating court and police records for securing the release of two arrested accused in a forgery case, police said on Saturday.

According to the police, lawyer Rekha Potnis (45) was involved in the racket of fabricating legal papers and getting arrested accused released on bail from a magistrate court. Potnis facilitated the release of two accused — Mohammad Shaikh (47) and Bashir Mulla (62), who were arrested by Srinagar Police for cheating and forgery last year. A local magistrate in his order had directed the Srinagar police station to verify the guarantor’s identity paper. But Potnis gave this order to an agent, Umesh Kamdi, who forged documents to secure the release of the duo. Kamdi and Shaikh are now under arrest in this fresh case. The racket came to light when a constable attached to the court found that the accused had been released on bail even though the police station had not verified the credentials of the guarantors. The court constable found that all the documents pertaining to their release were fabricated including the letter from. The accused also presented a fake policeman in the court to submit the purported verification report of the police station, Police PRO Sukhada Narkar said.