MARGAO
The Margao Municipal Council Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes on Wednesday formally lodged a complaint with the Margao police seeking a probe into the issuance of a non-availability certificate by forging the signature of the Sub-Registrar attached to the MMC and for using the municipal seal to obtain the certificate.
The Chief Officer has urged the Margao police to carry out the investigations through custodial interrogation and book the culprits involved in the racket in accordance with the provisions of the IPC.
In his two-page complaint, the Chief Officer stated that his office has received a copy of an order passed by the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao. The order, the complaint stated, is supported by a non-availability certificate purportedly issued on or about March 4, 2016.
The CO’s complaint further stated that the Sub-Registrar attached to the Margao Municipal Council has records of births and deaths only since the period beginning from 1971 and hence the question of issuing any non-availability certificate of an anterior period does not arise. Secondly, the complaint stated that the signature of the issuing authority has also been forged as the signature on the said certificate dated March 4, 2016, is not of the Sub-Registrar attached to the municipality. Thirdly, the complaint stated that the seal of the office as reflected in the said non-availability certificate also does not belong to the municipal office.
Incidentally, the fate of the previous episode wherein a similar forged non-availability certificate was used to get the court order, remains unknown, with MMC trying to figure out whether the Margao police had ever chargesheeted the case in court.
