PNS | Vijayawada
The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has arrested five persons involved in a case revolving around the fraudulent use of digital signatures belonging to senior IAS officers within the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). The suspects, identified as contract employees in the CMO, orchestrated the processing of 66 Chief Minister’s Petitions (CMP) over a span of three months. Shockingly, they managed to accumulate a sum of Rs 15 lakh by illicitly charging applicants varying amounts between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000.
Among the principal culprits apprehended in this operation are Kanamrala Srinu, the former District Education Officer (DEO) Under Secretary R Mutyalaraju; Guttula Sitaramaiah, an attender under Secretary Dhanunjay Reddy; Nalajala Sairam, DEO under Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy; Bhukya Chaitanya Nayak, DEO under Secretary Mutyala Raju; and Abdul Razak, an attender under CS Jawahar Reddy.
Speaking to media persons on Saturday, CID SP Harshavardhan Raju said that the accused had illicitly accessed the e-office login credentials of the IAS officers within the Chief Minister’s office. By exploiting these credentials, the suspects manipulated the CMP process, diverting petitions received from Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLAs) and Members of Parliament (MPs) to the pertinent departmental secretaries within the CMO. The illicitly created CMPs, each bearing the unauthorized digital signatures of the IAS officers, were then dispatched to the respective departments.
CID SP Harshavardhan Raju further revealed that the illicit activities first came to light in February 2023 when a CMP related to the Home Department, concocted by Kanamrala Srinu while employed in Mutyalaraju’s office, surfaced. An astute cross-verification by Senior IAS Officer Dhanunjaya Reddy, who encountered a CMP generated through the aforementioned fraudulent process, led to the discovery of the irregularities orchestrated by Srinu. Subsequent to an internal investigation, Srinu was relieved of his duties. However, in a startling turn of events, Srinu, aided by his accomplices, continued exploiting the senior IAS officers’ digital signatures for personal financial gain.
The CID’s rigorous probe has unearthed a total of 66 counterfeit CMPs, with the malefactors illicitly amassing Rs 15 lakh in the process. Notably, all these petitions purportedly pertained to transfer orders within the Medical and Education departments. As of now, none of these falsified CMPs have secured final approval.
The investigation is ongoing to ascertain the identities of those who bribed the DEOs involved in this intricate scheme, as emphasized by SP Harshavardhan Raju.
