CROSSING THE LINE

Fake e-passes keep officials on their toes

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai :  18.06.2020

As authorities across districts are engaged in the battle against Covid-19, they are now facing a problem of fake e-passes. An increasing number of people, desperate to reach other districts, are opting to use fake e-passes and even risking arrests.

On Wednesday, Kovilpatti west police arrested a school headmaster K Amulraj of Rajiv Nagar in the town for ferrying people between Tuticorin and Chennai using an epass obtained by producing a fake medical report. Using the e-pass, Amulraj took one person from Kovilpatti to Sriperumbudur and brought back two people from Ashok Nagar in Chennai on the return trip.

In Coimbatore, revenue department officials sealed a photocopying centre in Sulur that sold fake e-passes to those, who wanted to leave the district. South tahsildar J Meenakumari sealed the centre, functioning near the tahsildar office.

The incident came to light while verifying the e-pass of Tiruchendur native Manivannan at the Virudhunagar check post. Cops who scanned the QR code on the pass

found that the database did not match the details printed on the pass. “Inquiry revealed that, out of desperation, he had obtained a fake pass from a photocopying centre in Sulur,” said a revenue official. The tahsildar said employees at the photocopying centre had replaced the personal details on the copy of an approved e-pass.

In Salem, the city police registered cases against 17 persons after Salem municipal corporation (SMC) officials lodged complaint against them for entering the city without valid e-passes. Talking to TOI, SMC commissioner R Sadheesh said, people should have entered the city with valid e-pass or any other government passes if they were coming from other districts or states. “If they don’t have any such passes, it will be considered as illegal entry,” he said.

According to Sadheesh, many people had entered the city without valid reasons from other districts and states. The authorities have been monitoring people entering the city through all the four zones - Hasthampatty, Ammapet, Kondalampatty and Suramangalam. Those entering illegally without e-passes are being taken to the quarantine centers in the respective zones.