It was nearly eight years ago that Shankar Armugam, who was serving life imprisonment after being convicted in a 2001 kidnapping-for-ransom case, walked out of the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. The authorities have realised only now that the Supreme Court documents he produced to secure his release were allegedly forged, triggering an investigation into suspected collusion and grave procedural lapses inside the Prison Department.

This came to light after the Director-General of Prisons received a petition alleging that the convict had secured his release from the prison by submitting fake Supreme Court orders. Following the complaint, an internal probe was ordered, which reportedly confirmed that the release order was forged.

Case registered

Based on the findings, the Parappana Agrahara Police police have registered a case under Sections 465, 466, 468, 471, 472, and 420 of the Indian Penal Code related to forgery, use of forged documents, and cheating.

According to the complaint filed by the prison authorities, Shankar was serving life imprisonment after being convicted by the Fast Track Court-I in Bengaluru City under Section 364A of the IPC for kidnapping for ransom, along with charges under Section 120B for criminal conspiracy.

The complaint states that prison officials received what appeared to be an official communication purportedly issued by the Supreme Court of India in Criminal Appeal. Based on the documents, the convict reportedly paid a fine of ₹10,000 and was released from prison on November 13, 2018.

However, years later, authorities discovered that the Supreme Court order dated November 3, 2018, submitted before prison authorities was allegedly fake.

SC verfication

The fraud reportedly surfaced after prison authorities sought verification from the Supreme Court regarding the authenticity of the order. The apex court is said to have clarified that no such release order had been issued and that the documents produced before prison officials were forged.

According to the police, as per standard operating procedure, Supreme Court orders are not communicated through physical postal mail, and are instead transmitted electronically through official channels. Investigators suspect there were serious lapses on the part of prison officials who failed to verify the authenticity of the documents or follow mandatory SOPs before releasing the convict.

Police have now initiated a detailed inquiry to ascertain whether any prison officials were complicit in the fraud or negligently facilitated the convict’s release.

Efforts are also under way to trace and secure the convict, who has remained outside prison since 2018.