The Villupuram district crime branch on Saturday filed a case against Puducherry Transport Minister P.M.L. Kalyanasundaram and a few others for allegedly engaging another person to write the SSLC supplementary examination on behalf of the Minister on September 29.
The case has been registered under sections 419 and 420 (cheating), sections 465, 466, 469, 471 and 473 (all related to various shades of forgery) and section 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Besides the Minister, who has been arraigned as the first accused, schoolteacher P. Adhavan and a section clerk in the office of the District Educational Officer (DEO) have been included in the complaint filed by Chief Educational Officer (CEO) P. Karuppasamy.
Tamil Nadu School Education Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam told The Hindu that there was a prima facie case of impersonation in the examination, which was held at Jayapuram in Tindivanam.
Superintendent of Police, Villupuram District, N. Bhaskaran, said that the CEO had lodged a complaint stating that Mr. Kalyanasundaram was not the person who appeared for the examination on September 29.
A comparison of the handwriting in the answer sheet with that of the Minister clearly proved that a person other than Mr. Kalyanasundaram had sat for the examination.
Though the Minister was supposed to write two supplementary examinations, science and social science, on September 29 and 30, he did not appear for the examination on September 30.
According to Mr. Shanmugam, the address mentioned in the hall ticket of Mr. Kalyanasundaram was actually the address Mr. Adhavan, who is a teacher in the Adi Dravida Welfare Government Higher Secondary School at Singanur.
“In fact, Adhavan was not assigned as an examiner for the centre in which Mr. Kalyanasundaram was expected to write his examinations. He had forged a letter from the DEO office with the help of Rajinikant, a clerk, as if he had been sent to the particular examination centre,” Mr. Shanmugam explained.
The SP said that since it required a detailed investigation the case was transferred to the District Crime Branch.
Police sources said the person who wrote the examination is yet to be identified.
Rangasamy refuses to respond
Reacting to the reports of the police complaint against Mr. Kalyanasundaram, Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy said that he was not aware of any such development.
He told The Hindu he would not respond to these reports until he received information in writing.
Mr. Kalyanasundaram has maintained that he wrote the examination on September 29, but could not take the paper slated for the next day. The Tamil Nadu government conducted an inquiry into the allegations and prepared a report based on which a complaint was filed against Mr. Kalyanasundaram.
