Patna,(BiharTimes): The Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) on Friday ordered an investigation into the alleged forgery of the signature of chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on his official letter-head to recommend a name for appointment to the Commission.

A letter addressed to the Chairman of the panel, Justice (Retd) Bilal Nazki, reached its office on Friday. It purportedly had the signature of Manjhi and recommended the name of one, Niranjan Prasad Yadav, son of Subhak Lal Yadav of Chandaur, Saur Bazar, in Saharsa district for appointment to the three-member rights panel.

The letter, dated October 14, is written in chaste Hindi and the official letter-head has the logo of Bihar government. The telephone numbers of CM and an official correspondence number 82000023 are also there.

The only thing which makes it appear dubious is “CM, Bihar” handwritten in English.

According to Section 21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, State Human Rights Commission’s chairperson or members are to be appointed by the governor on the recommendation of a collegium consisting of CM, Speaker, Legislative Assembly, Chairman, Legislative Council, leaders of opposition of both the Houses and the home minister of the state concerned.

Shocked to see the recommendation on the chief minister’s letter-head, Justice Nazki asked BHRC superintendent of police Amitabh Kumar Das to investigate the matter.

An FIR against an unidentified person has been lodged with the Secretariat police station. The sub-divisional police officer Secretariat, Shibli Nomani visited the BHRC office on Friday afternoon and gathered evidence related to the alleged misuse of the CM’s letter-head and forgery of his signature.

SSP Jitendra Rana said an in-depth investigation has already been ordered. The investigating officer has been asked to ascertain the identity of the sender of the letter by post and collect CCTV footage from the post officer concerned.

The envelope in which the letter has been sent bears the sender’s name as “Sanjay Singh, carrying the designation of “personal secretary to the chief minister”.

An IAS officer Sanjay Kumar Singh is currently secretary to the chief minister. But the reports said that this Odisha cadre officer signs his name as “S K Singh”. Thus at present, no person by the name of Sanjay Singh is posted as the personal secretary to the chief minister.

Apart from the Chairman the Commission has two members: Justice Mandhata Singh and former director-general of police Neelmani. All of them have a fixed tenure of three years.