The Madras High Court has pulled up the Coimbatore police for going slow on the investigations into forgery of documents, allegedly carried out by the 125-year-old Cosmopolitan Club on the upmarket Race Course area.

Taking up for consideration of a petition seeking action against the club for fraud and forgery filed by RV Sudarshan, Justice P.N. Prakash of the Madras High Court asked the police to file a status report on the case within four weeks. The judge also questioned the investigating officers as to why the probe into the whole affairs was proceeding slowly.

The petition had come up for hearing on July 13, 2016.

The petitioner filed his plea, backed with RTI documents issued by the Urban Land Tax department , which clearly indicted the former officer bearers of this iconic club of Coimbatore. They have been accused of submitting forged documents to the Corporation and Local Planning Authorities for the construction of a guest house in the club premises.

The indictment came in the form of a RTI reply from the Urban Tax Department, issued by Information Officer and Settlement Tahsildar, V Vijayalakshmi. Her reply stated that the department had not issued the Survey Extract and Survey sketch, which were submitted by the former office bearers to the Corporation and LPA for approval. The RTI also states that “there were no related files in the department”.

When asked about this contradiction, a member of the club queried that if the RTI reply denies that the department ever issued the survey sketch and survey extract, then how can they be carrying the seal of the department.

However, when the petition came up for hearing, the Madras High Court judge got tough on the police for making slow progress in the investigations. The lawyer for the petitioner submitted to the court that the police were yet to examine or question the club officer bearers.

The petitioner submitted that the Local Planning Authority had stated in another RTI reply that they had handed over all documents relating to the case. But the police is yet to search the premises or make any arrests. The police had, however, registered an FIR against the officer bearers for cheating and forgery on October 31, 2015. But the investigating officers did not produce any documents to the court to prove that a search was conducted in the club premises.

Last year, the 125-year-old Cosmopolitan Club, a prestigious landmark of Covai, hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. Its executive members (2011 period) were alleged to have submitted forged documents to secure permissions for constructing a guest house inside the club premises.

RV Sudarshan had filed a complaint against the office bearers and EC members, who held office on 20.06.2011, for deciding to construct a guest house without taking the consent of the general body of the club. The club is spread across an area of 4.027 acres.

The 4.027 acre of Club land has a single SF number: 1372. In order to evade the OSR (wherein the Club will be forced to dispense with 40 cents of land to the government) the office bearers had included SF 1366/2, which is of the public road behind the club, as club’s property. They had fabricated a map that showed that the club possessed only 60 cents and obtained approval, said a whistle blower.

Government documents like Survey sketch, Topo sketch and Survey Extracts were fabricated and approvals were sought in the LPA and Corporation for the construction of a guest house, the whistle blower contended.

According to inside sources, they had proposed to demolish the old chamber building without the approval of the Club’s General Body. The estimated cost of construction that was placed in the committee meeting went up from Rs 2 crore to Rs 7 crore and then to Rs 9 crore, “much higher than the prevailing value of construction”, the complaint stated.

The then office bearers acquired approval to construct ground plus three floors and a car park using the forged documents. Without open tender system or Earnest Money Deposit (EMD), they had also hastily handed over the project to Niketa Construction. The builders began constructing the basement without adhering to the parking slot norms on 22.10.2012.

An Independent Special Committee was formed to unearth the irregularities and the report submitted on 30.04.2014 indicated that the number of rooms in the guest house was increased from 12 to 22 which is 83 per cent deviation from the `approved’ plan. Several other violations were also revealed and when it was brought to the notice of the then Corporation Deputy Commissioner Sivarasu, the LPA was alerted and the construction was halted.

An FIR has been registered by the City Crime Branch on all the 12 executive committee members under IPC sections 465, 466, 468 and 471.

The Covai Post is in possession of the FIR copy, the fake documents and the committee reports that have indicted the then office bearers.