Nagpur civic tax collector booked for forging papers to claim Rs 50 lakh over father's Covid death

Lakadganj police in Nagpur have registered a case against a tax collector of the municipal corporation. He is accused of allegedly tampering with the corporation's original documents to claim Rs 50 lakh in compensation from the government in the name of his father, who died during the Covid period.

According to police, the accused is Amit Laxman Thombre, 31, a resident of Hariharnagar, Garoba Maidan. The case was registered on the complaint of Jivraj Prabhakar Kale, 53, tax superintendent in the corporation's Lakadganj Zone No. 8.

Amit has been working for the last four years as a tax collector in Lakadganj Zone No. 8. His father, Laxman Mahadev Thombre, was a peon in the same zone and died in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.

The government had provided for an ex gratia grant of Rs 50 lakh to the families of officers and employees who died while on duty in containment zones during Covid. To receive the amount, the heir of the employee concerned had to submit a required certificate.

However, Laxman Thombre was elderly and had therefore not been assigned duty in a restricted area. He was working in the accounts department.

The then assistant commissioner, Vijay Kulkarni, had signed the certificate submitted for the grant after drawing lines at certain places. According to the complaint, Amit wrote the date March 22, 2020 and the words "peon containment zone" by hand at those places. A seal impression was also stamped over the words "containment zone".

It is alleged that after this tampering with the original document, the certificate was submitted to obtain a financial benefit from the government. The corporation has also filed a petition in the High Court in the matter.

A departmental inquiry has also begun at the Nagpur Municipal Corporation headquarters. Meanwhile, Kale lodged a complaint with the police. Police have registered a case under sections relating to cheating and begun an investigation.