TIRUNELVELI: A total of 78 permanent employees, including sanitation workers, were recently dismissed by executive officers (EOs) of 27 town panchayats in Tirunelveli and Tenkasi districts, for joining under priority quota for disabled persons by submitting forged disability certificates between 2010 and 2015.
The Assistant Director of Town Panchayats Tirunelveli Zone A William Yesudass and Executive Officer of Alangulam Town Panchayat Sivakumar confirmed the dismissal to TNIE.
According to a report filed by Secretary of Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department D Karthikeyan before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, 78 people, including sanitation workers, joined between 2010 and 2015 by submitting forged disability certificates with the help of four agents, 27 EOs and 22 medical officers.
The report also revealed that based on the complaint of a Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital doctor, a case was registered at the TvMCH police station for the offence under various sections of the IPC.
Sources said, the inspector after conducting inquiry, sent a letter to the assistant director of Tirunelveli town panchayat on May 31, 2015 confirming the offence and requested the assistant director to take action. Police also arrested one Sankar, an agent, who prepared the fake certificates.
The case was later transferred to the CB-CID. A total of 22 medical officers, who issued the disability certificates, denied the signatures. Later, their specimen signatures were submitted before judicial magistrate no I, Tirunelveli and the same was forwarded to the regional forensic science lab in Madurai for the opinion of a handwriting expert.
Citing the delay for the laboratory report, the CB-CID sleuths kept the case pending for the past nine years. However, based on Justice B Pugazhendhi’s order on November 25, the EOs have dismissed 78 permanent employees.