Fake disability certificates issued from office of civil surgeon, FIR against 21 in Haryana’s Fatehabad

The fake disability certificates were issued to people who wished to avail employment under the disability quota, admission to colleges and other technical institutions, and avail pension under the social justice and empowerment scheme

The Fatehabad police have booked 21 persons, including two clerks posted at the civil surgeon’s office, for providing fake disability certificates to 80 persons from January 1, 2018, to July 31, 2022. The fake disability certificates were issued to people who wished to avail employment under the disability quota, admission to colleges and other technical institutions, and avail pension under the social justice and empowerment scheme.

The Fatehabad police have booked 21 persons, including two clerks posted at the civil surgeon’s office, for providing fake disability certificates to 80 persons from January 1, 2018, to July 31, 2022.

The accused have been identified as Vikram Kumar and Ravi Kumar, the then clerks posted at Fatehabad civil surgeon’s office and 19 others, who furnished disability certificates to avail of pension under the social justice and empowerment scheme and other benefits. The Fatehabad police have booked these accused under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471(making or possessing counterfeit seal) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Chief minister’s flying squad inspector Richpal, who is posted in Hisar, said that they received complaints that fake disability certificates are being issued by misusing the digital signatures of doctors in Fatehabad.

“This case came to the fore when a clerk Deepesh Beniwal posted at Fatehabad civil surgeon’s office, was uploading the disability certificate of Devender Singh, a resident of Tohana, on July 8 last year, but saw that his certificate was uploaded three days ago, and even the disability percentage was increased to 42% instead of 40%. Deepesh then started an investigation at his level and found that 240 disability certificates were issued from June 21 to July 8 last year, of which 40 were uploaded without doctors’ verification. Deepesh informed the entire matter to the then Civil Surgeon Sangita Mehta and told her that he used to take help from another clerk Vikram and had changed the password of the portal. Vikram himself issued his disability certificate on July 2 last year, without doctors’ verification,” the inspector said in the complaint to Fatehabad police station.

Inspector Rajpal Singh of Fatehabad city police station said that a committee was formed under civil surgeon Dr Sapna Gehlot, who found that 3,769 disability certificates were issued from January 1, 2018, to July 31, last year, of which 80 were found to be fake.

“Of these 80 certificates, 74 were issued by clerk Vikram and six by his associate Ravi Kumar. Apart from these two, 19 other persons were booked as they were getting pensions from the social justice and empowerment department and had availed of other benefits. Of these 19, six persons’ pensions have been stopped. During the probe, it was found that in one case, a person with 50% disability got a 100% disability certificate without doctors’ verification,” he added.