TIRUVANNAMALAI: Fooling the entire government machinery for nearly three years, two women and a man served as school teachers after forging certificates in three different schools of the district.
The trio, who went absconding since Monday, have been booked by police on several charges.
They have been identified as C Muthulakshmi, assistant graduate teacher for Tamil at Government High school at Aaavaniyapuram near Vandavasi, C Punithavathi, a graduate teacher for history at Government High school Vadamampakkam, and S Vijayakumar, a graduate teacher for English at Government High School in Melmattai near Vinnamangalam.
About a month ago, Tiruvannamalai chief education officer V Jayakumar received a complaint against Muthulakshmi alleging she was not a government servant. She had taken up the position in June 2014 by producing a transfer order from Mambakkam Government School near Arcot.
Acting on the complaint, Jayakumar asked all school headmasters in the district to send the details of teachers appointed in their schools in the last ten years along with the copy of appointment letters.
The education officials verified the details and it was found that Muthu-lakshmi did not work at Government School in Mambakkam and the transfer order submitted by her was a forged document. The inquiry also led to Punithavathi and Vijayakumar, who also forged their appointment letters.
The trio had been receiving their salaries from the government for the past three years. Following investigations, Jayakumar lodged a complaint to Superintendent of Police R Ponni against the 'three teachers'.
Jayakumar told Express that a departmental inquiry had been ordered as to how the trio remained in service for nearly three years.
"We have also initiated procedures to terminate three of them from service," he added.
A senior police officer said, the trio has been booked under IPC 465 (forgery), 468 (purpose of cheating) and 471 (fraudulently creating documents).