The district police of Erode, Tamil Nadu, arrested three members of a gang of four who prepared fake government order letters in Erode and broadcast awareness short films in schools.
The accused were identified as G Prasannaraj, (45), of Tiruchengode in Namakkal, D Govindharaj, (44), and S Karthikeyan, (44), of Sankagiri in Salem. D Sathyanarayanan, of Sankagiri, is absconding, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
Police said, "On February 26, a registered post sent from the District Public Relation Officer office address to a private school was returned. PRO Sukumar was shocked when he opened the registered post. Because inside that post there was a fake order prepared in the name of the District Collector."
"The letter was prepared in the name of the District Collector to the school education department officials and all the school principals in the district. And in that letter, the awareness short film Kuzhandhaigal Uzhagam was ordered to be screened in schools at a discounted price. It also had the seal of the PRO office on it. But the PRO confirmed that they were fake and filed a complaint at the Erode South police station," police added.
The police investigation revealed that Prasannaraj and three of his friends were involved in this. Following this, on Saturday, March 1, the police arrested the three except Sathyanarayanan. The police are looking for him.
"The gang used that fake letter to broadcast the film in six schools in Erode. For this, they collected Rs 10 per student. They have been doing this for the past month. They have already obtained government permission until 2022 to broadcast awareness short films in schools. After that, the government abandoned the scheme. So, they prepared fake seals and order letters and sent them to schools. One of the letters came back to the PRO office. This exposed their fraud. But they have done it for survival. Further investigations are on," a police officer said.
