Forging Mother’s Will To Deny Sister Property Share Not ‘Civil Dispute’, Says High Court

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh High Court’s Indore division has denied anticipatory bail to an individual accused of forging his deceased mother’s will to exclude his sister from a property in Ujjain. Justice Gajendra Singh ruled that the issue transcended a civil matter. The purported will, allegedly executed on June 4, 2013, lacked the mother’s thumb impression and gained no support from the sole surviving attesting witness.

The prosecution alleged that the applicant forged the will, which pertained to a 4,350-square-foot plot in Ujjain, involving the family’s sole surviving child. The sister filed a complaint asserting the will emerged in 2023, alleging that her brother manipulated the property registration in his name without her consent. She claimed that her brother transferred the property to his son, a co-accused, to prevent her from inheriting.

During the investigation, the Finger Printing Bureau contended the purported will did not bear the mother’s thumb impression. The applicant’s legal counsel argued there was insufficient evidence of forgery, characterizing the dispute as purely civil. The sister contested this, highlighting the applicant’s prior rejection of her co-accused son’s anticipatory bail request.

The applicant claimed his silence was inadvertent, unaware of the proceedings. The court noted the will’s emergence after the sister sought a share, the applicant’s company formation in November 2023, a Rs 1.28 crore loan secured by the firm with the applicant as co-borrower, and the subsequent sale of the property to his son. Concluding that the circumstances pointed to document forgery aimed at barring a female heir, the court deemed the case not purely civil.

It also dismissed the anticipatory bail application, considering the earlier rejection of the co-accused’s bail plea.