Akola, Oct 10 (PTI) Four officials have been booked for alleged involvement in issuing birth certificates based on forged documents in Alegaon gram panchayat in Maharashtra’s Akola district, police said on Saturday.
The Channi police station official said the matter pertains to 1,101 such birth certificates, the original records of some of which are now unavailable.
RH Deshmukh, JP Tayade, KPM Nimsarkar and Ganesh Jadhav have been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating, forgery of government-issued documents, and other offences on the complaint of Akola additional district health officer Shashikant Ramrao Pawar, he said.
The issue of 1,101 allegedly fake birth certificates was first raised by former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who had claimed these were procured by Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in the country.
A special investigation team looking into the matter had found instances where applications were missing, prescribed fees were not charged, and birth certificates were issued despite the absence of original records.
The SIT report said while a system for birth registration via the CRS portal has been in place in Maharashtra since 2016, birth registrations were carried out based on old records and with the help of allegedly forged documents. PTI COR BNM
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