Aizawl: Mizoram Police on Sunday said the modus operandi behind the issuance of fake court orders at south Mizoram’s Lunglei district jail involved an undertrial prisoner and an ambulance driver, attached to the facility, who forged judicial documents together from inside the prison to secure the release of 17 convicts.The duo was arrested on May 1 and was later remanded to police custody on Thursday.According to a statement issued by Mizoram Police, investigators have identified Aizawl’s Jeremia Lalthangtura (25), the inmate, as the alleged mastermind, who colluded with C Laltlanhlua (31), the ambulance driver, to prepare the forged documents.He (Jeremiah) cheated his fellow inmates by claiming that he would arrange appeals for them through lawyers, who were known to him, and facilitate their release, reportedly asking them to cough up anything between Rs 4,000 to Rs 50,000, the statement said, adding that, as per investigators, Rs 1.35 lakh was collected by duping the convicts.While the money has been partially recovered, the convicts, according to police, either handed over their money directly to Laltlanhlua or transferred it to his bank account by using his phone. Jeremiah, too, regularly used the driver’s cellphone and banking facilities from inside the jail premises, the release stated.Police said the forged documents were prepared at two locations — a computer and photocopy shop at Rahsi Veng and the office computer of the jail.According to investigators, while Laltlanhlua procured the office keys and stood guard, Jeremia accessed the computer to create fabricated court orders, discharge bonds and other judicial documents. The fake papers were then allegedly submitted to jail authorities as genuine court directives. The computer and the printer, which were allegedly used for the crime, have been seized and sent to the forensic laboratory for examination.The statement said Jeremiah allegedly assured inmates that their official release orders would arrive soon after payment was made, duping them all along.The scandal, which rocked the state’s legal circles, first surfaced after the judge of the district and sessions court noticed discrepancies in documents produced by two prisoners on April 24, carrying release orders allegedly issued by the district and sessions court and the Gauhati high court.The documents immediately raised suspicion as the two prisoners had appeared before the same court the previous day while their next hearing had been fixed on May 8.While 17 convicts, including those convicted under POCSO, NDPS and theft-related cases, had ‘secured’ their release between Jan 30 and March 18, after a search operation by police, 13 of them were traced, leading to the rearrest of 11.
