Central excise department lodges forgery complaint against employee

The Central Excise and Customs department recently lodged a complaint against one of its employees for allegedly submitting bogus school leaving certificate to procure a job there. The accused, Laxmi Pai, had submitted certificate of a school that never existed, the police said.

According to the police, Pai joined the department in 1997. The complainant in the case is Anandi Vijayan, who works as an administrative officer in the department.

In 1997, Pai had applied for Group D post of sipahi in the department as it had issued advertisements for the vacant posts of sipahi, porter, and cleaners. The department had asked candidates to submit academic and other related documents.

"Pai was selected and has been working as sipahi since May 2, 1997. During a recent verification process, the department became suspicious about the authenticity of the Std VIII school leaving certificate Pai had submitted. A departmental inquiry was then initiated in this regard.," said an officer from the Azad Maidan police station.

The officer added that Pai had submitted certificate of a night school located on NM Joshi Marg. The inquiry made with the education department revealed that the school didn't exist.

Following this, a complaint was registered against Pai earlier this month under sections 465 (punishment for forgery), 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.