IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE RAJENDRA KUMAR VANI

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ON THE 19 OF NOVEMBER, 2025 CRIMINAL APPEAL No. 10973 of 2024 MUKESH @ GUDDU DWIVEDI Versus THE STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH Appearance:

Shri Manish Kumar Mukhraiya - Advocate for the appellant. Shri Anil Upadhyay - Panel Lawyer for the respondent/State.

J U D G M E N T With consent of the learned counsel for the parties, heard finally.

This criminal appeal under Section 374 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for short, herein after referred to as the Code) has been preferred against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 19.09.2024 in S.T. No.84 of 2019 passed by learned First Additional Sessions Judge, Dindori (MP) whereby the appellant has been convicted for offence under Section 120-B read with Section 465 of IPC and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a term of 06 months with fine of Rs.5,000/- with default stipulation.

2. In this case, accused persons, namely, Ajmer Das, Arti Mongre, Santu Singh, Devendra @ Deepak Burman and the present appellant Mukesh @ Guddu Dwivedi are charged under sections 120-B r/w Sections 420, 467 and 471 of IPC that between the year 2007 to 2014, they had conspired together in Districts Dindori and Katni to forge the D.Ed. mark sheet, which is a valuable security, to defraud the Government and to use the forged mark sheet as genuine. In furtherance of which, accused Devendra forged the mark sheets of accused Ajmerdas, Santu Markam and Aarti Mongre and the said accused used the same as genuine. Accused Ajmerdas, Aarti Mongre and Santu Markam are also charged under Sections 420 and 471 of IPC that during the said period, accused Ajmerdas defrauded the government by submitting forged mark sheets and obtaining appointment (absorption) from the Assistant Teacher cadre to the post of Teacher, and accused Aarti Mongre and Santu Markam defrauded the government by obtaining appointment (absorption) from the post of Contract School Teacher Class-3 to the Assistant Teacher cadre, and knowingly using the forged D.Ed. mark sheets as genuine. Accused Devendra alias Deepak is also charged under Section 467 of IPC for forging the D.Ed. mark sheets of co-accused Ajmerdas, Santu Markam, and Aarti Mongre at his residence in village Balhi, district Katni, during the said period.

3. The prosecution story in short is that Ajmer Singh was posted as Shiksha Karmi Grade-3 in the Primary School Dhanauli Development Block Samanpur and in the year 2007 he took the benefit of absorption as Assistant Teacher, thereafter in the year 2014 he took the benefit of promotion from Assistant Teacher to Teacher by attaching fake D.Ed mark sheet. The enrollment number of the accused in the D.Ed mark sheet was nil, hence the complainant Madhav Singh Tekam submitted a written complaint of these facts before the Collector Dindori, on the basis of which the Superintendent of Police, Dindori got the complaint investigated by the Sub-Divisional Officer (Police) Shahpura and obtained the report and on the basis of the said report, a case has been registered against accused Ajmer Singh at Crime No.95/18 for commission of offence under Sections 420, 467, 468 of IPC. The crime was registered and during investigation, it was found that accused/present appellant Mukesh Dwivedi, after taking money from other accused persons and other teachers, got a fake D.Ed mark sheet prepared from accused Deepak. Fake mark sheet (original) was seized from accused Ajmerdas, after getting it verified from the Board, it was found to be fake. Computer and other material of accused Devendra alias Deepak were seized and got it examined by FSL. As per FSL report Ex.P.41, D.Ed. mark sheets of Ajmerdas, Bahadur Singh, Santu Markam, Sajjan Singh Dhurve and B.A. marksheet in the name of Mukesh Dwivedi were found in computer software and also the software for the purpose of editing was also found in the computer. From the possession of Sajan Singh