Andhra Pradesh: Five held for forging CMO officials’ digital signatures

The accused were using official login names and passwords of CMO secretaries to create Chief Minister Petitions, which were then misused to extort money

The Andhra Pradesh CID has arrested five people for allegedly using the digital signatures of senior officials posted in the Chief Minister Office’s (CMO) to forge Chief Minister Petitions (CMP) and relay them to various departments to earn money illegally. The CID took Kanamarla Srinu, Gutthula Sitaramayya, Nalajala Sai Ram, Bhukya Chaitanya Naik and Abdul Razzak into custody, police said on Saturday.

“For some time, the digital signatures of CMO officials have been used to generate CMPs. Based on a complaint from the CMO officials, we have registered a case,” said a CID official in a press release. Incidentally, the accused persons were using the e-office login username and password of CMO secretaries to create CMPs by using requests of MLAs and MPs without the authorisation of the officials concerned and sending them across to various departments for implementation. Police identified Srinu to be the prime accused in this case who used to work in officer Revu Muthyala Raju’s office as a junior employee.

Deploying the knowledge he had gained on how to use the e-office, Srinu initially used it for his monetary benefit by creating forged CMPs and sending them across to any department he wanted. Further, he connived with Sai Ram, Sitaramayya, Naik and Razzak, who were working under different senior officials to form a gang, take petitioners’ requests along with MLA or MP request letters, upload them on the e-office and extort between R30,000 and R50,000 from the petitioners.

Over time, police identified that 66 CMPs were fake,  and leaned that the accused used to share the extorted money among themselves. Police booked a case under Indian Penal Code Sections 420, 465, 471 read with 120B and Section 66C and D of the Information Technology Act while the accused are in the process of being sent in judicial remand.

66
Number of fake CMPs unearthed in the probe

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