We, at Solutions, have been in the field of handwriting analysis or graphology for more than two decades now. We have had the opportunity to crack open numerous criminal cases involving handwriting and signature forgery and fabrication of body text of official documents. In all such cases the intention of the author was to grab undue benefits through forgery of signatures.
Out of such cases, one particular story that occurred just last week popped into my mind today. A secretary from a private limited company approached us and submitted a few suspicious documents, requesting us to make a verification report for the same.
To lend some context to this case, let us begin with how it all started. Couple of highly educated friends belonging to humble, agricultural families came together to collaborate on a business plan. They decided to start an institute for training purposes. Each person invested a good amount of capital to kickstart this institute with big dreams, hopes and goals in mind. Their idea and this friendship seemed to be in an ultimate, unstoppable mode. As time passed, few of them got married after which their spouses got involved as well and started looking after the institutional business.
Their combined intention was very clear- growth of the company. Unfortunately, their spouses came from starkly different cultures and backgrounds leading to conflicts of interests and disagreements, which is when the discrepancies and problems began to surface.
Now, the battle of one upmanship, authority and superiority over each essentially became more important to the partners’ rather than their friendship, and a cold war of sorts began amongst them.
Meanwhile, the company was in good shape with respect to its monetary returns/ profits, but due to their ongoing misunderstandings and clashes, ignorance on their part started coming into play. Their friend- “ship” was now drowning due to too many captains trying to control the navigation wheel.
In the heat of the moment, two of the directors formally submitted their resignation letters with their signatures on them.
After some time they realised the error of their hasty actions which ensued a legal battle between the partners. The two people who had formally resigned, now claimed that the resignation letters as well as the signatures on them were forged by someone else and were not of their own doing.
Following this, the institutional secretary i.e CS, came down to our office to ask for our guidance in solving this case through handwriting analysis. We noted down all the details of this case and requested the CS to hand over the company’s attendance book and annual meeting book. The signatures from these two authorised documents were then submitted to us. With reference to these admitted signatures and some body text belonging to the directors who had mysteriously resigned, we began our investigation report.
After completing the handwriting analysis of these documents and body text of the resignation letters, we polished our final report to perfection and then submitted it to the Company Secretary.
As per our studies and opinions stated in the report, the signatures and body text were 100% matching the authorship.
The purpose of this blog is to raise awareness regarding such fraudulent activities that happen daily, and how taking emotional decisions in the heat of the moment can give you a burn mark that will last beyond not just one lifetime, but many more to come. My advice to avoid making regrettable, wrong decisions during heated conflicts or meetings is to take a break, visit the washroom, splash cold water on your face, take a deep breath, walk around for a few minutes, sing your favourite song, whistle for a bit, let it all out and then rejoin the said meeting. Not only will this stop you from reacting in a way you would regret later, but could also save you from a lifetime of misery and “what-ifs”.
Us here at Solutions thus love to live by this famous Sherlock Holmes quote- “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance observes”. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Our profession has ingrained in us the ability to observe the tiniest details which people always tend to miss, connect the dots and bring upon justice to the case in hand.