Navneet Chaturvedi remanded to police custody till October 23 in Rajya Sabha nomination forgery case

The Ropar police today produced Navneet Chaturvedi, a resident of Jaipur in Rajasthan, before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Ropar, Sukhwinder Singh, who remanded him into police custody till October 23rd. A case of forgery, impersonation, and criminal conspiracy was registered against Chaturvedi for allegedly using the forged signature and name of AAP MLA from Ropar, Dinesh Chadha, in nomination papers submitted for the Rajya Sabha election from Punjab.

For the past two days, high drama was witnessed as the Chandigarh and Ropar police faced off over Chaturvedi’s arrest. While Chandigarh police were protecting Chaturvedi, the Ropar police were trying to arrest him. It was only after a court order yesterday at about 8.30 pm that the Ropar police got custody of Chaturvedi. He was brought to Ropar last night and was produced before CJM Ropar.

The case has been registered under Sections 318 (forgery), 336(2), 336(3), 336(4), 340(2), and 61(2) of the BNS.

The case against Chaturvedi was lodged after MLA Dinesh Chadha filed a written complaint on October 13, stating that he found his name listed among the proposers for Chaturvedi’s nomination in a WhatsApp message circulating across various groups and social media platforms. The message reportedly contained the names of proposers from Punjab, including a forged signature of Chadha on Form 2C, the official nomination document for the Rajya Sabha election.

Chadha, in his statement recorded at Canal Rest House, Ropar, on the night of October 13, said, “The document being circulated is fake and fabricated. My signature has been forged, and my name has been misused with malicious intent to gain undue political advantage.” He also stated that he had never met or interacted with Chaturvedi.

The police have sought remand of Chaturvedi to investigate the criminal conspiracy behind the forgery of signatures of 10 AAP MLAs for the Rajya Sabha nomination. Sources said that Chaturvedi, now in police custody, is claiming that he did all this for publicity. However, the way Chandigarh Police protected him has given rise to many conspiracy theories and possible attempts of defection in AAP.

MLA Chadha called the act “a dangerous attack on the integrity of the electoral process,” urging authorities to bring all conspirators to justice. “Such acts not only defame elected representatives but also erode trust in democratic institutions,” he said.