The Virudhunagar district police on Sunday night registered a case against president of Reserved Panchayat of Kottakatchiyendal, V. Karuppan, and its Vice-president, M. Uma Maheswari, and two others for allegedly swindling Rs.1.16 lakh from the local body. The First Information Report was registered at the Narikudi police station following a complaint given by the Narikudi Block Development Officer, P.S. Shanthi. However, no arrest had been made till late night, the police said.
Kottakatchiyendal that was infamous for non-conduct of election to the reserved panchayat for 10 years till 2006 was again in news after Mr. Karuppan complained against caste Hindu members of the local body that they forced him to sit on the floor during panchayat meetings.
The Virudhunagar Collector, M. Balaji, who had inspected the village twice on Thursday and Friday, ordered the officials to probe the matter.
The case against the elected representatives, and the Panchayat secretary, Ravindran and a supporter of Karuppan, Tiruvettai, is that they siphoned off Rs.1.16 lakh in January 2012 by creating false records in implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.
In another case, filed by Ms. Shanti, the police booked Ms. Uma Maheswari, her husband, Marikannu and Ravindran, on charges of having taken a commission of Rs.10 from each of the beneficiaries of the job guarantee scheme. The police registered a case for criminal intimidation against two persons, G. Kandasamy and Velu, based on a complaint given by Mr. Karuppan, under the provisions of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
