Peon arrested for forging Chief Minister’s signatures

A peon employed at the State Secretariat Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore is cooling his heels in the police lock up after forging the Chief Minister’s signature on recommendation letters for transfer of officials.

Police said Kumar, a peon working on a contract basis in the Chief Minister’s secretariat, had forged Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s signature on five recommendation letters for transfer of officials for a sum of Rs 20,000 each.

A JD (S) leader from Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka Anand Gowda came to the State Secretariat a couple of days ago to meet the Chief Minister seeking his recommendation for transfer of certain government officials. As the Chief Minister was not present, Anand Gowda came the following day to meet him and was informed by Kumar that the Chief Minister was again unavailable.

After learning the reason behind the JD (S) leader’s visits, Kumar took the recommendation letters and assured him that he will get it signed by the Chief Minister after his arrival.

A few days later, Kumar called up Anand Gowda and asked him to collect the signed letters in return for Rs 20,000 for each letter. The peon collected Rs 100,000 from Anand Gowda and handed him five letters of recommendation for transfer of officials as sought by him.

Anand Gowda later met the Chief Minister directly and got his signature on more transfer letters and noticed the difference in the signatures of the Chief Minister on the earlier letters and the later ones. A suspicious Anand Gowda approached the Chief Minister’s Secretariat and confirmed the difference.

He immediately lodged a complaint with the Vidhana Soudha police against Kumar for forging the Chief Minister’s signature. The police immediately took Kumar into custody for investigation.