Punjab Vigilance Bureau on Saturday said it had registered a case against forest conservator Harsh Kumar posted at Hoshiarpur for submitting fake appreciation letter to state government for removing adverse remarks in his annual confidential report (ACR).
In this case a private person Ajay Palta , Director, Palta Engineering Works Private Limited, Focal Point, Jalandhar was also booked under relevant sections at police station SAS Nagar.
An official spokesperson of the Vigilance Bureau said during the investigation, chief forest conservator, Kuldeep Kumar Lomis had written some adverse comments in Harsh Kumar's ACR of year 2014-15 and the later had submitted his written request to minister of forests, Punjab for omitting negative notes from ACR by attaching copy of an appreciation letter.
During investigation of vigilance enquiry, it was found that appreciation letter was not issued by Dr. Ashok Kumar, Scientist-F, Incharge Genetic and Tree Production Department, Forest Research Institute (FRI) Dehradun (Uttarakhand).
During vigilance enquiry, Harsh Kumar, Vijay Kumar DFO Hoshiarpur and Ajay Palta, submitted an affidavit and stated that this appreciation letter was typed by Dr. Ashok Kumar, Scientist on his computer and presented to Vijay Kumar DFO in the presence of Harsh Kumar and Ajay Palta.
During investigation it was found that the FRI was closed on the date on account of Budha Pornima holiday. The office or institute could be opened only after taking prior permission from the FRI head but no such permission was granted for the same.
The spokesperson further added that as per the reports of Forensic Science Laboratory, VB has found that signatures on the appreciation letter was not of scientist Dr. Ashok Kumar as well as such letter was not recovered from the hard disk of computer used by Dr Ashok Kumar. In fact, the letterhead used by Dr Ashok Kumar carries a green logo, but the logo printed in this forged appreciation letter was black.
On the basis of the investigations, Vigilance Bureau concluded that Harsh Kumar and his accomplice Vijay Kumar (deceased) and Ajay Palta in connivance with each other have dishonestly brought in forged document to cover up the adverse remarks entered against him in the ACR.