The Puducherry police have registered a case against a government employee and his accomplice, for adopting fraudulent means to obtain a loan from the Thirubhuvanai Farmers Co-operative Society.
Superintendent of Police Vamseedhar Reddy, identified the duo as S. Jayakumar, manager of the Society and Ramesh, a resident of Kalitheerthalkuppam.
Ramesh, a repeat offender in forgery-related cases, managed to obtain duplicate rubber seals with the imprint of the Village Administrative Officer, Revenue Inspector and Deputy Tahsildar, and faked their signatures to create Crop Cultivation Certificates under the name of 55 members of the society.
With the assistance of Jayakumar, he obtained agricultural loans to the tune of ₹35 lakh under the names of these 55 farmers. The scam came to light after the society started sending notices to the farmers intimating them of payment of interest for the ‘loans’ taken by them. When the farmers found out their names had been used in forged documents, they informed the police, Mr. Reddy told The Hindu.
The two have been charged under section 420 (punishment for cheating), 468 (punishment for forgery), 471 (punishment for using forged document) and 473 (punishment for counterfeit seal) of the Indian Penal Code.
Mr. Reddy said Ramesh was involved in two other cheating and forgery cases. “The previous cases against him are very similar to this one. Both of them are absconding. We have formed special teams to nab them,” he said.
