CM Eknath Shinde's Forged Letterhead Sheds Light on Similar Incident Involving Deputy CM Fadnavis

Navi Mumbai: The state government has taken serious note of letterheads containing fake signatures and fake stamps of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and has registered a case with the police. However, in the past too, a fake e-mail account was created in the name of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis' private secretary and ordered the fake transfer of six engineers related to the electricity department. Sources said Fadnavis' letterhead for the order also had his forged signatures. It is suspected that a gang may be active in achieving its objectives by misusing the name of the minister. 

Taking serious note of the fake e-mail account of Fadnavis' private secretary, additional chief secretary Sujata Saunik had on February 12 directed all the ministry administrative departments and offices working under them to use government-approved platforms like official e-mails and e-offices for government work, sources told Lokmat. Now it has been revealed that chief minister Eknath Shinde's name has also been misused in the same way. The incident is under investigation. Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday assured the State Assembly that strict action will be taken against the culprits.

What were the instructions? 

• Government departments and offices under them should use the domain name gov. in/nic.in authorized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) for correspondence with each other and other transactions through prepared e-mails for government business. 
•  Use e-office and similar established government platforms for official correspondence, and office transactions.
• Any official business information received through e-mail ID from private service providers such as Gmail or Yahoo will not be considered official. Therefore, such private service providers should not be used for government work.
• All government departments and offices under them should strictly implement these matters.