Man produces fake death certificate of grandma, HC orders probe

CHENNAI: Observing that a person can have two birth certificates in the State, but not two death certificates, a division bench of Madras High Court directed Virudhachalam police to conduct a probe against a man who submitted a fabricated death certificate of his grandmother before the court.

The bench comprising Justice S Vaidyanathan and Justice AD Jagadish Chandira passed the orders on hearing a habeas corpus petition of Selladurai, a resident of Virudhachalam. The petitioner sought direction to rescue his grandmother Sembayee alleging the latter was abducted by his brother for grabbing her property.

As the court already ordered the police to find the whereabouts of Sembayee, the police identified that the elderly woman lived there at an orphanage in Tiruchy. As the NGO which has been running the orphanage submitted that Sembayee died and was cremated in the orphanage’s crematory, the judges closed the habeas corpus petition.

Besides, it came to the knowledge of the judges through the petitioner that Rajkumar, the accused, had gotten a death certificate for his grandmother when she was alive. Virudhachalam Tahsildar informed the court that he did not issue any certificate and the one which was produced by Rajkumar was fabricated.

Taking a serious note of this issue, the bench ordered the police to file a forgery case against Rajkumar in July. Subsequently, while passing the final orders, the judges directed the respondent police to proceed with the probe to find out the accused who are involved in the case.