Hyderabad: Cops suspect irrigation babus

Hyderabad: Some employees of the Irrigation department are under the scanner of the Hyderabad city police, which is investigating the fake Government Order (GO) case, perhaps the first of its kind in Telangana state.  

Though cases of fake educational certificates and other documents  come before the investigators routinely, this is the first time that a fake GO has surfaced and the police are leaving no stone unturned to crack the mystery.

Sources associated with the investigation told Deccan Chronicle that even as they are yet to pin-point who is behind getting the fake GO issued, the needle of suspicion points to some employees of the Irrigation department and some contractors. The investigators feel that without their connivance, it is difficult to prepare a bogus GO concerning the Irrigation department.

“People with some knowledge of the functioning of the irrigation department appear to have colluded with some persons and issued the fake GO. Without their support, it looks highly unlikely that someone could prepare it,” sources said.

The case is being dealt with by the Central Crime Station (CCS) of the Hyderabad city police and sources said that they could be close to a breakthrough.

It is reliably learnt that the investigators will soon be questioning Irrigation department employees in connection with the case.

Interestingly, the GO, which came out of nowhere, was circulated within many sub-departments of the Government before someone in the Government smelt a rat and informed their superiors. A formal complaint was then lodged with the police.

The fake GO MS no 2136 dated September 25 spoke about waiving liquidated damages amounting to around Rs 90 lakh, which investigators say would have benefited contractors who take up government projects.

“We are on the job of tracking the beneficiaries of such a GO. Files of the Irrigation department are under scrutiny which will throw more light on who could possibly be behind this mischief,” sources said.

They said that had the fake GO been implemented, the government would have incurred a loss of about Rs 90 lakh.

“Obviously, the beneficiaries were smart enough to come up with this kind of an idea and get benefited. We will track down where it was printed and definitely the role of government employees (of the irrigation department) is being investigated as they are the ones who have complete knowledge about the features of a GO. There could be more than one accused in this case,” sources added.

The bogus GO was not in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Government regularly.

When contacted, Joint Commissioner of Police, CCS, Avinash Mohanty said that the case is under investigation. “A thorough investigation is underway and we cannot reveal anything at the moment,” he said.

The CCS had registered a case under section 420 IPC (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 IPC (Punishment for forgery), and 468 IPC (Forgery for purpose of cheating). The complainant in the case is Deputy Secretary in the Irrigation and Command Area Development (CAD) department, LLV Subamma, who had written to the Director General of Police M Mahendar Reddy for a probe into the matter. The case was then entrusted to the CCS.

It is learnt that a special team has been formed to crack the case at the earliest. Senior bureaucrats are closely monitoring developments in the case as the Government is now worried whether similar bogus GOs have made their way into the files pertaining to various government departments.