Berhampur, Aug. 8: The civic body has lodged a police complaint against a forged death certificate of one E. Subhadra of Banka Bihari Nagar in the city.

The matter came to light after a private insurance company brought allegation that the death certificate had been forged to help Subhadra get her life insurance claim. It could not be ascertained whether Subhadra is still alive.

On July 29, the assistant manager of the insurance company from Haryana came here and approached the Berhampur Municipal Corporation to verify Subhadra's death certificate to settle her claim. The civic body's health officer-cum-registrar of birth and death certificates Subhakant Das said: "We verified the registration number after the assistant manager handed over the photocopy of the death certificate of E. Subhadra and found it fake." Following this, the corporation lodged a complaint at Town police station on August 6.

The police said the document had been forged using the contents and registration number of a genuine death certificate.

The death certificate of one Sunita Bisoyi was used to prepare the fake document. A doctor mentioned as a gazetted officer and a councillor, Ranjit Nayak, attested the forged copy on March 26.

The councillor is a loyalist of former Congress MLA Ramesh Jena and, at present, in jail on charges of extortion. He was jailed on March 8.

In the fake copy it is mentioned that Nayak's is the councillor of ward No. 17 - which is wrong. Town police station inspector in-charge Nihar Ranjan Pradhan said the case is being investigated.