Andhra govt hands over CM Relief Fund fake cheques case to CID

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India], September 22 : The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday handed over the case related to fake cheques of Chief Minister's Relief Fund to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
As per the Thullu Police in the Guntur district, the CID has formed special teams for investigation at West Bengal, Karnataka and Delhi.
"Some unidentified miscreants had created fake cheques of the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Relief Fund and tried to cash them at different banks in Karnataka, West Bengal and New Delhi. The fraud came to light when bank officers tried to cross-check the transactions. The miscreants submitted fake cheques to the tune of over Rs 117 crores," Thullur Circle Inspector Dharmendra Babu said.
He further said that the case had been filed based on the complaint of P Murali Krishna, assistant secretary of the State Revenue Department.
"The State government had issued cheques for beneficiaries under the scheme for Rs 16,000 and Rs 45,000. The cheques were issued on November 8, 2019, June 19 and June 29, 2020. The cheques were forged and submitted at different banks in Delhi, West Bengal and Karnataka, and the criminals tried to realise the cheques on the name of different companies for crores of rupees," Babu added.
The Thullur police were already in the process of investigating the forgery. They inquired with the revenue department personnel on Monday evening and later handed over the case to CID.
Meanwhile, an internal investigation in the revenue department was also launched, reportedly by the Anti-Corruption Bureau to check for the involvement of secretariat employees.