A person, seeking a job, forged the signature of a minister, and then took the fabricated letter to the minister herself, complaining that her order hadn't been followed by officials.
A baffled minister, however, realised that she had never signed such a letter.
The incident came to light in the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat here late this evening, when a man called 'Ali' approached Tourism and Culture Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya.
Handing her a letter purportedly containing her signature, he complained that her directive to give him a job in the Tourism Department as an outsourced employee was not followed by the officials.
The letter also bore the minister's office seal.
"He had approached me a couple of times earlier in Nandyal and Allagadda (the minister's hometown) and I had said I will look into his request. Suddenly he came to my chamber today with the letter. I scrutinised it and realised it was not my signature and the seal was fake," Akhila Priya told reporters.
"I alerted the officials and asked them to give a stern warning to the person. No action will be taken against him, but the officials have been asked to warn him sufficiently against repeating such acts. I also asked my department secretary not to honour any such letters," the minister said.
The police personnel in the Secretariat sought to confront him, but the man gave them the slip and disappeared, an official said.
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