Forgery racket busted in Bareilly; two arrested

Hindustan Times

4 days ago

Bareilly police have busted an interstate gang creating fake government documents, including Aadhaar and PAN cards, domicile certificates, income and caste proofs, and even academic marksheets, authorities said on Friday. The forgery racket was being run under the guise of a Jan Seva Kendra (public service centre) in the Bhojipura area, they added.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided Azhari Jan Seva Kendra and Aadhaar Card Center on Friday and uncovered a sophisticated setup used for creating forged documents. Two prime accused, identified as Mohammad Faheem alias Guddu and Ziaul Mustafa, were arrested from the centre. Both had been running the illegal operation for nearly a year, earning lakhs of rupees through fake documentation, authorities said.
Confirming the arrests, superintendent of police (north) Mukesh Chandra Mishra said investigations are ongoing to identify potential clients and other members of the racket. 'We are tracing the source and destination of these forged documents. The racket may have wider links across states,' Mishra said.
According to police, the accused were operating from the Pachdaura Dohariya area within Bhojipura police station limits. Faheem, who had prior experience with Aadhaar enrolment while working for Baroda U.P. Gramin Bank, used his technical knowledge to set up the forgery racket. He was joined by Mustafa, who had been preparing for NEET after passing Class 12.
The accused reportedly began their fraudulent activities after Faheem was removed from his Aadhaar operator role due to a complaint lodged with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The complaint stated that he was illegally charging ₹100 per Aadhaar card, violating the standard charges of ₹18 for new enrolments and ₹13 for updates. After being dismissed, he opened the Jan Seva Kendra and brought Mustafa, a Class 10 pass, on board to expand their operations, police explained.
During the raid, police recovered a huge cache of forged documents and hi-tech equipment. The seized items included a laptop, a PVC card machine, a monitor, a CPU, two printers/scanners, a DSLR camera, a webcam, a camera stand, a large fingerprint scanner, two small thumb scanners, two camera control units, and three mobile phones, officials said.
Among the documents recovered were 20 fake birth certificates, 15 forged domicile certificates, five fake income certificates, 15 forged stamp papers, a fake Bihar Board Class 10 marksheet, a fake UP Board Class 10 marksheet, 20 fake Aadhaar cards, two PAN cards, 44 black plastic Aadhaar cards, and a fake voter ID card.
Despite their modest educational backgrounds, both Faheem and Mustafa managed to set up a technically advanced facility capable of producing forged documents that could deceive even trained officials, police said adding authorities were scanning the seized digital devices to collect data and trace possible links to similar operations elsewhere.