Four officials booked over 1,101 birth certificates issued by Alegaon gram panchayat

Akola: Four officials have been booked under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for cheating, forgery of government documents and other offences for allegedly issuing birth certificates on the basis of forged documents in Alegaon gram panchayat in the district. The case was registered at the Channi police station on the complaint of additional district health officer Shashikant Pawar, police said on Saturday.

The matter involves 1,101 certificates, and for some of them the original records can no longer be found, an official at the Channi police station said.

A special investigation team that looked into the matter found instances of missing applications, prescribed fees not being charged and certificates being issued despite the absence of original records. Its report said that although Maharashtra has registered births through the CRS portal since 2016, registrations were carried out on the basis of old records and with the help of allegedly forged documents.

Source: ETV Bharat