A person, seeking a job, forged the signature of a minister, and then took the fabricated letter to the minister herself, complaining that her order hadn’t been followed by officials.
A baffled minister, however, realised that she had never signed such a letter.
The incident came to light in the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat here on Wednesday evening, when a man called `Ali’ approached Tourism and Culture Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya.
Handing her a letter purportedly containing her signature, he complained that her directive to give him a job in the Tourism Department as an outsourced employee was not followed by the officials.
The letter also bore the minister’s office seal.
“He had approached me a couple of times earlier in Nandyal and Allagadda (the minister’s hometown) and I had said I will look into his request. Suddenly he came to my chamber today with the letter. I scrutinised it and realised it was not my signature and the seal was fake,” Akhila Priya told reporters.
“I alerted the officials and asked them to give a stern warning to the person. No action will be taken against him, but the officials have been asked to warn him sufficiently against repeating such acts. I also asked my department secretary not to honour any such letters,” the minister said.
{{/usCountry}}“I alerted the officials and asked them to give a stern warning to the person. No action will be taken against him, but the officials have been asked to warn him sufficiently against repeating such acts. I also asked my department secretary not to honour any such letters,” the minister said.
{{/usCountry}}The police personnel in the Secretariat sought to confront him, but the man gave them the slip and disappeared, an official said.