Former Digboi Municipal Board engineer booked for making counterfeit seal

Our Correspondent

DIGBOI: Mohendra Das, son of Soniram Das and retired engineer of the Digboi Municipal Board (DMB), was booked on Saturday morning at Digboi Police Station in Tinsukia district.

According to the FIR lodged by DMB chairperson Shipra Mallick, retired engineer Das had on October 14 engaged one Balabhadra Gayan, a fourth-grade staff of the DMB, in making a counterfeit seal of the chairperson and DMB from a nearby printing press at Ananda Para, Digboi. The case (291/19) was registered accordingly and is being prosecuted u/s 120(b), 406,473, and 511of IPC. However, the arrest was yet to be made till the filing of this report.

Meanwhile, when contacted, Das repudiated the allegations and denied having any kind of relationship with Gayan in this ugly state of affairs. He said that the statements made by Gayan were not at all material and admissible. However, Das said that he had joined service in the then Digboi Town Committee in the year 1975 and retired on January 31, 2014 and now perusing the DMB off and on for the gratuity payable to him.

According to him, the DMB in 2018 had offered him Rs 3.5 lakh as gratuity against Rs 7 lakh, which according to him stands unpaid till date. “Similar employees across Assam have filed joint writ petition (C) NO 6067 of 2019 in the Gauhati High Court demanding our dues and as such I am not able to submit my appointment letter which has been misplaced,” said Das.

“I have applied to the office of DMB for a duplicate copy of the appointment letter but my prayer fell into deaf ears and instead of assisting in the process, the board members seemed to create complicacies on my way,” lamented Das.

Balabhadra Gayan, the peon of Digboi Municipal Board, admitted being handled the seal by Das and said that he had gone to the press to along with the diagram of the seal. “He ought not to misguide an uneducated fourth grade staff like me in doing an illegal act, putting my service at jeopardy,” said Gayan. He said that he was show caused and subsequently suspended for three days.

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