Udupi: The first additional CJM Court Udupi has sentenced Atul Rao, accused in the Padmapriya case, to one year of imprisonment and a penalty of Rs 5,000, for forging documents.

Padmapriya, the 33-year-old wife of BJP’s then Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat, was missing from Udupi on June 10, 2008. Later, she allegedly died by suicide in an apartment in Delhi on June 15, 2008.

Atul, a second division clerk in the PWD, was booked under sections 417 (punishment for cheating), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC, in connection with the case.

Special public prosecutor Shivaprasad Alva said that on June 10, 2008, Rao had taken Padmapriya in his car from Udupi to Kumta. He had placed bangle pieces and red colour liquid inside her car, to fake a kidnapping scene, before leaving the vehicle in Udupi.

From Kumta, the two of them proceeded towards Goa airport in a taxi. Atul had forged his wife Meera’s driving licence, by fixing Padmapriya’s photo on it. In Delhi, he introduced Padmapriya as Meera. Earlier, he had registered a rental agreement for a two-bedroom flat in Delhi, using a fake address, as a resident of Bengaluru. He also used the same rental agreement to open a bank account in Delhi, introducing himself as an engineer, though his qualification was SSLC. He had forged documents to make people believe that he had nothing to do with the missing case of Padmapriya, Alva said.