Oblivious to a cheating case lodged against them at a Chennai police station, retired IAS official D. Vivekananthan and his son received court summons in 2015 when they learnt that a chargesheet had also been filed against them for allegedly cheating people on the pretext of giving them government jobs.
The CBI stepped in after the Madras High Court quashed the police chargesheet in August 2016 and ordered the matter to be investigated afresh by the agency. Having unravelled the sequence of events, the CBI has now filed a chargesheet against one A. Ganapathy, accusing him of cheating 10 persons of ₹1.30 crore, using the name of the IAS official and his son, without their knowledge.
According to an agency official, the scam took place in 2013. At that time, the IAS official held a Secretary-level post in the State government. Ganapathy collected money from the victims on the promise of getting them employed as assistant public relations officers with the Tamil Nadu government through Mr. Vivekananthan, without a written test or interview. “Ganapathy made the candidates believe that the money was handed over to the official through his son, Kavin Vivek. However, when they did not get jobs, they started asking for their money back. The accused then lodged a complaint at the Thirumangalam police station and produced a photocopy of one ₹20 non-judicial stamp paper as receipt for ₹1.30 crore purportedly signed by Mr. Vivek,” said the official.
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In December 2013, the police registered an FIR under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. “Mr. Vivekananthan and his son were not aware of the case. He retired in June 2014. The police filed a chargesheet in January 2015 without even examining them. On receiving the court summons, they came to know about it,” the official said.
The retired official and his son then filed a discharge petition. “Meanwhile, in mid-2015, the matter came up for a hearing in the Madras High Court, which in August 2016 directed the CBI probe,” said the official.
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The High Court, in its order, listed a series of loopholes in the police probe. They had not made Ganapathy an accused despite the fact that he collected the money as a conduit; they had not examined the stamp paper vendor; Ganapathy alleged that Mr. Vivek had snatched the original receipt from him, but no witness statement was recorded.
The notary public concerned was not examined; no steps were taken to get Mr. Vivek’s authenticated signature for comparison with the one in the receipt’s photocopy; and “no steps were taken even to interrogate Kavin Vivek and D. Vivekanandan, IAS., before the final report [chargesheet] was filed”. Also, no inquiry was conducted to trace the money.
The CBI took up investigation and found that Mr. Ganapathy had masterminded the scam and used the official’s name to cheat the victims. The agency alleges that he had lifted Mr. Vivek’s signature from a rent agreement to forge the receipt. “He knew a person who had entered into a rent agreement with Mr. Vivek,” the official said.
Ganapathy, according to the agency, had also made the victims file a false affidavit in the High Court in support of his bail application, when he was absconding. “During the probe, he was arrested. All candidates told the CBI that they never knew the IAS official and his son. They only knew Ganapathy. The agency has also found that a part of the money was returned to the candidates through banking channels,” said the official.