Swapna booked for cheating, forgery

Thiruvananthapuram: After facing severe criticism for failing to act before Swapna Suresh, one of the main accused in the gold smuggling case, fled the state, the state police have registered a case against her for forging documents to obtain a job at Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited (KSITL).
Police registered a case against Swapna as the first accused, and PricewaterhouseCoopers and Vision Technologies as the second and third accused for forging documents to get a job for Swapna at the KSITL.The case has been filed on the basis of a complaint from the managing director of KSITL Jayashankar Prasad. She was appointed at KSITL through PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Vision Technologies.
The police have charged the case under the sections 406, 465, 468, 471, 420 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code, that deals with criminal breach of trust, forgery, cheating and using forged document for one’s advantage. The charges, if proved, can award imprisonment up to seven years.
The FIR said that the first accused used a fake bachelor’s degree certificate of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University and managed to get the post of junior consultant at KSITL with the help of the second and third accused. The case has been registered at the Cantonment police station in the capital.
Meanwhile, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Monday that the government decided to institute an inquiry against the appointment of Swapna at KSITL. “The chief secretary and the additional chief secretary (finance) will inquire how she was appointed at KSITL,” he said. If there are lapses by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the government will act against them too by removing them from government projects.