Washington: In an embarrassment for CPI (M) veteran Sitaram Yechury and other members of parliament, who denied signing 'any letter' sent to US President Obama wanting to know from him his government's stance on US visa to Narendra Modi, a forensic test on Sunday claimed that all the signatures on the said letter were authentic and real.
"Using accepted principles and methods of forensic examination, it is my opinion that the Q1-Q3 (three pages of Rajya Sabha MPs' letter) document was created in a single event, and that the signatures found upon it are original/authentic wet ink signatures," a California-based Forensic Document Examiner claimed after examination of the letter.
Besides Yechury, DMK's member from the Rajya Sabha K.P. Ramalingam, CPI MP Achutan, Nationalist Congress Party MPs Vandana Chavan and Sanjeev Naik, and Congress MPs Marotrao Kowase, Anil Lad and Jayantrao Avale had all denied signing the letter.
The letter, carrying the signatures of many Indian parliamentarians, was dispatched to both the US president and the British prime minister last year.
A copy of the letter was resent to the White House Tuesday after Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh, on a recent visit to the US, asked the government there to issue a visa to Modi.
The letter was forwarded by Rajya Sabha's Independent member Mohammed Adeeb, who expressed shock at Yechury's reaction.
"I am shocked. I don't believe that a person like Yechury is saying something like this. I have his signature. His name is ninth in the list. How can I paste it? I am a member of parliament and I cannot do such a thing. If he says that I have cheated him, I will take him to court," Adeeb said.
"I would welcome it if a probe is done. Will resign from the Rajya Sabha and go to jail if signatures on the letter to Obama are forged," Adeeb tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier, Adeeb said that "40 MPs from the Rajya Sabha and 25 from the Lok Sabha" signed the letter, which was written in November 2012, before the Gujarat assembly elections.
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