Panchayat secretary held in fake birth certificates racket

​Visakhapatnam: The task force police on Friday arrested seven members, including a panchayat secretary, who were involved fake birth certificates racket.

Secretary of Dharmavaram panchayat in S Kota mandal of Vizianagaram district and data entry operator of the same panchayat office, were arrested and police launched a manhunt to nab others involve in the racket.

The arrests were made after the Regional Passport Officer NLP Choudary lodged a complaint with the Airport Police Station alleging that birth certificates furnished by a few applicants as fake.

As per the norms, passport applicants, born after January 26, 1989 have to submit their birth certificate, issued by the Register of Birth and Deaths (RBD).

However, some applicants, who did not possess the birth certificate issued by RBD, approached the agents to obtain the fake birth certificate for passport.

Joint Commissioner of Police AS Khan told reporters that the passport officials have identified that the birth certificates issued at Dharmavaram panchayat as fake.

“They listed out the applicants and lodged a complaint with Inspector of Airport Police Station NV Prabhakar,” he informed.

The task force police led by ACP I Chittibabu and Prabhakar investigated the case and after questioning two applicants, the police succeeded in arresting the main accused involved in making of fake birth certificates.

The accused were identified as P Suribabu, panchayat secretary of Dharmavaram and S Santhosh, data entry operator at the panchayat office.