Town panchayat official charged of swindling Rs 2.15cr

Coimbatore: The district crime branch (DCB) police have filed a chargesheet before judicial magistrate court -II here on Thursday against Moppiripalayam Town Panchayat Executive Officer (EO) and five others for misappropriation of funds of 2.15 crore.
On July 15, 2014, J Thirugnanam, 53, additional director of town panchayat, Coimbatore lodged a petition to the district crime branch police and claimed that the panchayat executive officer (EO) Z Nazima Banu, 42 of Sundarapuram, her younger brother Jahangir, junior assistant of the Moppiripalayam Ramesh and three others Rajamanickam, a building contractor, Aathiyappan, an electrical shop owner and Devaraj.
Nazima Banu issued cheques in the name of Rajamanickam, Aathiyappan and her brother Jahangir that they had done various road laying works and construction of drainage works in the panchayat.
Hence, she had sanctioned 2.15 crore to them and the amount was taken from the town panchayat's account.
Nazima bought a flat in Ramanathapuram for 70 lakh and bought 2.5 acres of land at Kinathukadavu in her younger brother's name.
Based on the complaint, police registered a case against the six people under Sections 120(b)(criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trusty by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Police arrested Aathiyappan and Rajamanickam, while the other accused obtained anticipatory bail from the Madras high court.
Meanwhile, the police attached the properties of Nazima Banu. The DCB police prepared a chargesheet against the six people and filed it before the judicial magistrate court -II on Thursday.
The chargesheet will be given to the accused by the court soon, after which the trial will begin.