Baripada: A day after the arrest of two persons for allegedly forging signature of Mayurbhanj MP Bishweswar Tudu, local police revealed Wednesday the ‘modus operandi’ of the two accused.
One of the two accused Hemant Soren, is said to be the mastermind behind forging the signature of the BJP MP and deriving advantage through it. Soren is a member of the Morada panchayat and was working in the BJP lawmaker’s office, Baripada town police station IIC Birendra Senapati informed.
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The other accused Sailesh Giri is a computer operator in the MP’s office. While one of the accused happens to be a relative of the MP, the other is a member of the party’s media cell, Senapati said.
“Investigation revealed that, Soren collected money from people with the promise to provide them work in various schemes under the Local Area Development (LAD) fund. Besides, he was not paying the salaries of the MP’s personal driver and other staffers in the office,” Senapati said.
Involvement of both the accused came to the fore during implementation of two Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) projects. One of them was at Baripada town and the other in Morada panchayat in the district.
The MP suspected foul play in the ongoing ITDA project in ward No-22 of Baripada town because it was being done at a different location than the area earmarked.
Tudu also had misgivings about construction of a Chhau Pandal under Morada block. Following this, he lodged a complaint on the basis of information he got from departmental engineers.
Acting on the complaint, police launched a probe and found that Soren has forged the signature of the MP on a duplicate office pad and sent it along with project proposals to the PA, ITDA for approval.
Police have seized the duplicate office letterheads which were used by Soren and Giri.
PNN