Kashmir court convicts Ayush doctor for cheating using RTI

Srinagar: A medical officer from Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) has been convicted by a Srinagar court of cheating by personation and using as genuine a forged document while filing a right to information application, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

Dr Zahoor Ahmad Tantray of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir was convicted by the Court of 2nd Additional Munsiff Ahtzaz Ahmed on Tuesday for filing an application under Right to Information (RTI) Act in the name of another person and using it as a ‘genuine’ document.

“The prosecution has proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt to the extent that the accused had cheated the officials of department of ISM by pretending to be Muzafar Ahmad Ganaie by filing an RTI application in his name and thereby using a forged document as genuine. As such, the accused is hereby convicted for offences of cheating by personation and dishonest use of forged document,” the court order read.

On October 30, 2013, a complaint was filed by then Director ISM that a medical officer, Tantray, was transferred to Udhampur in Jammu division for misconduct and harassment and the accused was harassing the officials of the department by filing the RTI applications.

The letter said the accused was using different names so that he could escape from the departmental enquiry and could put pressure on officers of the Department.

The Director said the ISM department received a chain of RTI applications with identical language, filed under different names of Muzaffar Anwar Ganie - son of Dr. Tantray's landlord in Srinagar, who denied filing the application and Muhammad Ashraf Ganaie.

Following the complaint, a case was registered in police station Saddar and investigations were taken up.