The police arrested a 61-year-old man from Tiruvottiyur on Tuesday on the charge of creating a fake income certificate.
According to the police, a woman, Gomathi, had applied for the State government’s ‘ Thaaliku Thangam ’ scheme. However, it was rejected as the Tiruvottiyur zonal tahsildar office calculated her annual income to be ₹96,000.
Exposed by bar code
“For her to be eligible under the scheme, her income should be around ₹72,000,” said a police officer attached to the Tiruvottiyur station.
Hence, she approached Pandian, 61, of R.M.V. Nagar in Tiruvottiyur, who runs a DTP centre on Village Street in the same locality. Police claimed that he was also a broker and helped people get certificates from the tahsildar’s office.
“He, along with another woman employee Vasantha, tampered with the printout of the online income certificate and changed the income from ₹96,000 to ₹72,000 per annum. She then handed the same over to the Revenue Inspector at the tahsildar office and sought to become a beneficiary of the Thaaliku Thangam scheme,” said a police officer.
Sources at the tahsildar office said that the certificate was found to be fake during verification. “There is a bar code in the online income certificate and upon scanning it one can find out the actual income as calculated by us,” said an official.
A complaint was lodged with the Tiruvottiyur police by Varalakshmi, the zonal deputy tahsildar, and Pandian was arrested.
The police are on the lookout for Vasantha, who is absconding.
