PANJIM: Tiswadi Block Development Officer (BDO) has filed a forgery case against former St Estevam Sarpanch, former Panchayat Secretary and the clerk for allegedly preparing forged minutes of gram sabha and submitting it to the authority.
According to the police, BDO Pritesh B Shetye has stated in the complaint that at the village panchayat all the accused fraudulently pretended that gram sabha was held on July 5, 2021, in the panchayat.
They also allegedly affected entries into the proceedings or minutes book such as names of villagers of St Estevam and forged their signatures on the relevant documents showing that they attended the gram sabha. However, they themselves did not sign the book on the relevant dates thereby cheated the authority.
The accused are Shirshkumar Tari, former Secretary of Village Panchayat St Estevam; Jonita D’Costa, former Sarpanch and Maria Fonseca, Clerk of VP St Estevam. The incident occurred between January 2020 and October 2022.
An offence has been registered at the Old Goa Police Station under Sections 465 and 42 read with 34 of IPC and the same is being investigated by PSI Sudin Kerdkar.
