Who we trust We trust our family, relatives, friends, and carers. When we say we trust him/ her it means the same is trustworthy. There are certain situation arises when such person whom you trust the most, due to greed or under some influence of other committed a breach of trust and falls under a criminal liability of forging or creating a fake document. A relative is often executer of a will left by a deceased. As executer he or she has access to all his assets, property and paper work so he is in position to commit fraud by forging and fabricating a document or creating a fake will. There are many reasons for a trustworthy person to commit a fraud or creating a fake will. A fake will can be created by any of a family member, a friend or a household worker to get the financial benefit on the estate of the deceased. Carers are the one who holds a great responsibility of taking care of a person during his last days. There are many cases founded in which the carers, relatives and the person who are trustworthy scams elderly people or ill people either by theft or creating and changing or altering will in their favor. Apart from these people it is quite common for attorney whom you granted power of attorney commit frauds, mismanagement of funds and indulges into the process of forgery and fabrication. Mainly these types of fraud were found in making or creating fake wills which are similar to committing the act of forgery. In today’s scenario, there are numerous cases of person creating a fake will of a deceased with a mala fide intention to snatch the property and assets and other financial benefits.
The main reasons behind these are the personal greed of person and a motive to become rich without doing any hard work and making efforts to achieve something bigger in their life. It is generally difficult to prove that a will presented for execution is a fake will or a forged will. A fake will or a forged will is basically a will which is made without the consent and the knowledge of the deceased. A will is a fraudulent will if the signature on the will is done by another person and the same will is codified by the deceased. A fake will can be a result of a family problems or other kind of issues between a families. Most common victims of these kinds of frauds are the elder people of the family or the people who have no one in their family.
How to prove a fake will
Proving a fake will is quite hard to prove in the court as the main witness or the person who makes the documents is already dead. But there are certain ways by which a person can prove that will present for execution is forged. While proving it must be considered that,
- The will benefit non members of the family and it is quite unusual or odd.
- The will crated in a short period of time and nearly to the death
- The handwriting and the signature on the document is the same as the deceased.
- Whether will is written or codified or created at home.
- Whether the witnesses on the will are benefited by the will or not.
- In cases where will altered and the particular totally does not match to the previous one if made.
If, by looking into these points it is proved that the will is fake or forged then the estate and the benefits received by the fraudster will revert back and the same can be transfer to the beneficiaries as per the particulars of the last will if created. A will obtained by fraud or undue influence is invalid will. When a person indulged into creating a fake will he will be treated as person committing the act of forgery under section 463 of Indian Penal Code 1860 and he is liable for the penalty mentioned under section 465. As per the Act the same is punishable with the imprisonment which may extent to two year or fine or both. Forged or fake wills are there in existence as long as a written document first used. A will can be faked by any family member, friend, and household workers. It is quite complicate to recognize either the will is real or fake so, to prove the authenticity of the will it is necessary to make possible efforts for checking the handwriting and the signatures of the deceased and the witnesses thereon. There are numerous cases which fail to prove the originality of the will and the estate falls into the hands if the greedy people and they enjoyed a blissful life.