An assistant executive engineer (AEE) with the Panchayati Raj department was apprehended on Wednesday while the police are looking for another engineer for allegedly forging the signature of Odisha Assembly Deputy Speaker Bhabani Shankar Bhoi to secure transfers to places of their choice.

The action followed a complaint by the deputy speaker’s office. Laxman Hembram, who was posted in a block in Keonjhar district, has been apprehended, while Monalisa Behera, a woman engineer in the same department, posted in another block of the district, is also wanted by police.

According to Bhoi’s office, the two engineers submitted forged recommendation letters with the forged signature as well as forged demi-official letterhead of the deputy speaker’s office, to the Panchayati Raj department. The letters sought their transfers to the Sundargarh district.

“The documents were neither issued nor authorised by the office of the deputy speaker,” said the deputy speaker’s office. Its police complaint said that such acts constituted serious criminal offences, involving forgery, fabrication of official records, use of forged documents as genuine, cheating, impersonation, criminal conspiracy, and misuse of government office, among other offences.

Before this, under a June 8 order issued by the Panchayati Raj department for the transfers of 52 AEEs, the two engineers — based on forged recommendation letters — were transferred to Sundergarh, said official sources.

The FIR against Hembram and Behera was registered at the Capital police station in Bhubaneswar under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including cheating by personation, forgery, fraudulent use of a forged document, common intention, and cheating, as well as under the Information Technology Act.

In the “forged” documents, the two engineers allegedly mentioned “administrative and public interest grounds” for the consideration of their transfers. The letters read that their “technical experience and field knowledge” will be highly beneficial for the effective implementation of the Panchayati Raj and drinking water schemes in the two blocks of Sundargarh district.

Police sources said they were currently questioning Hembram for further details.