Pune Newsline: Pune: Sunday, July 29, 2012.
Of the six bogus advocates arrested in Pune since April 2011, five have been granted bail and four have begun their practice at their respective offices (see box). A right to information (RTI) query filed by Newsline in the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa (BCMG) has revealed that the Pune Bar Association (PBA) had forwarded a complaint against only one of the six bogus advocates.
The six persons arrested by the police are Mahendra Vishwanath Kawachale, Anil Murlidhar Kavle, Uddhav Vinayak Kshetrapal, Mangala Rathod, Sandhesh Shivsharan and Amit Kumar Dawar.
The Newsline query revealed that the PBA has forwarded a complaint only against Kawachale to the BCMG, that too after directions from the Bombay High Court. “The Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa has registered an FIR against him for forgery of valuable security, forgery for purpose of cheating, using a forged document or electronic record as genuine and cheating,” the RTI reply states.
Except Kawachale, who is on bail, and Dawar, who was recently arrested and is in police custody, Kshetrapal, Kawle, Rathod and Shivsharan have obtained bails and are practising as usual, said Amol Kajale-Patil, former secretary of PBA, who was involved in vigilance committee of the PBA.
Kavle, who was arrested on October 1 last year, is found to have studied till HSC. He was practising in the debts recovery tribunal (DRT) and was also on legal panel of many banks, including State Bank of India. After seeking bail from the court in November last year, he continues practicing in the DRT. He is also recruited as an assistant general manager -administration by the Defence City Developers Private Limited that is coming up with ‘Defence City’ -a mega township of independent residential bungalows, apartments and commercial complex near Wagholi.
Kshetrapal was practising on civil and criminal side and had allegedly duped his clients of at least Rs 5 lakh. He has opened an office in the Pimpri-Chinchwad area and continues with his civil practice. It was found that he did not have a law degree or sanad.
Rathod and Shivsharan, who were contesting revenue cases were arrested from the revenue court premises. Rathod had forged her sanad, while Shivsharan could not produce his sanad to the PBA vigilance squad. Rathod continues her work in the collector office and revenue court, Shivsharan works in the joint sub-registrar’s office at Magarpatta.
Kawachale, a criminal lawyer from Mundhwa, was arrested following a complaint by his client. He used to practise in the Pune district and sessions court and the Bombay High Court and had contested around 49 cases in the last two years and filed over 50 petitions in the HC. The BCMG found that his law degree was fake and that he started practising even before he obtained his sanad, or an enrolment licence, based on a bogus law degree certificate. He is currently on bail.
“Although it has been over a year that five of these persons were arrested, no chargesheet has been filed by the police in any of these cases,” said Kajale-Patil.
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