The Cyber Crime police commenced investigation at the Madurai Corporation following the imbroglio over the issuance of ‘death certificate,’ in the name of CPI (M) MLA R. Annadurai and State Cooperation Minister ‘Sellur’ K. Raju by some miscreants which came to light Saturday last.
The police, assisted by a few software experts, interrogated the staff in-charge of issuing online birth and death certificates, here on Monday.
“We are first gathering inputs on how the system works. Secondly, we want to ascertain, where and who had tampered with the system,” a team member said.
After there were complaints of corruption and that some Corporation staff used touts in the issuance of birth and death certificates, the Corporation launched the online system to public on September 10.
Mayor V.V. Rajan Chellappa and Commissioner R. Nanthagopal had assured then to the public of elimination of corruption.
However, utilising the loopholes in the technology, the miscreants act had not only embarrassed the administration, but sent shock waves among the ruling party members by issuing the death certificate in the name of the local minister. A senior police officer monitoring the investigation said that they had narrowed down on four staffs in the Corporation.
Preliminary inquiries suggested that the death certificates in the name of the two MLAs were indeed issued by the Corporation. The digital signature appearing in the certificate was, however, not of the designated officer.
Another officer said that the password of the staff may have been tampered with by the miscreants in getting access to the computer.
As part of the investigations, the police took custody of the gadgets.
The Corporation officials said that until investigations were completed, the issuance of birth and death certificates through online would remain suspended.
