A retired engineer of Digboi Muncipal Board (DMB) has been booked at Digboi PS in Tinsukia district in a forgery case.
The retired engineer has been identified as Mohendra Das, son of late Soniram Das.
A case (291/19) has been registered under sections 120(b), 406,473 and 511of the IPC following an FIR lodged by the DMB chairman.
However, he has not been arrested till filling of this report.
According to the FIR lodged by DMB chairman Shipra Mallick, Das on October 14 last engaged one Balabhadra Gayan, peon of the DMB, to make a counterfeit seal of the chairman and DMB in a printing press at Ananda Para, Digboi.
“Before filing the FIR, we show caused Gayan and sought his written explanation to the forgery,” Mallick told Northeast Now.
“Finally, we acquired a confession letter of Gayan revealing the mala fide intent of the former engineer,” said Mallick.
‘We have attached the Gayan’s confession letter with the FIR copy,” the DMB chairman added, “We now seek the law to punish the guilty.”
Meanwhile, when contacted, Das dismissed the allegations and denied his relationship with Gayan in the forgery as mentioned by the latter in his statement.
However, Das said he joined the office of the Digboi Town Board in 1975 and retired on January 31, 2014 and go to the DMB office occasionally as he is yet to get his gratuity paid.
According to him, in 2018, the DMB had offered him Rs 3.5 lakh as gratuity against Rs 7 lakh.
“I did not accept the amount and have been fighting a legal battle to get the dues in full,” Das told Northeast Now.
“We, the deprived employees across Assam have filed a joint writ petition (C ) NO 6067 of 2019 in the Gauhati High Court demanding our dues,” he added.
Stating that he misplaced his appointment letter, Das said, “I have applied for a duplicate copy of the appointment letter at the DMB office, but my prayer has not been heard.”
“Instead of assisting in the process, it seems the board members are trying to create complicacies in my way,” lamented Das.
However, when requested to narrate the entire story, DMB peon Gayan admitted that he was handled by former engineer Das and even went to the particular press to obtain the same along with the diagram of the seal.
“He (Das) should not have misguided a fourth grade staff like me and engage in such an illegal act putting my service at risk,” regretted Gayan.
Gayan informed that he was show caused and subsequently suspended for three days.