The Hindu : Four held for selling fake documents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Four held for selling fake documents

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 17. Four persons, including a mobile phone company employee, have been arrested by the Crime Branch of the Delhi police on charges of printing and selling fake documents used as proof of identity. They also used to provide mobile phone connections to customers and even get them on loans from various banks on the basis of fake documents.

The Special Investigation Team of the Crime Branch had got a tip-off about a person running such a racket from his hideout at Geeta Colony in East Delhi. Subsequently, a raid under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police, D.R. Virdi, was conducted around 4-45 p.m. on Friday. The main accused, Anil Kumar, a Geeta Colony resident, was arrested and several scanners, printers and other incriminating documents were recovered. At his instance, his accomplices - Harkesh Verma, Salim Ahmed and Ashok Sharma - were also arrested. A large number of printers, Tata Indicom mobile phones, fake driving licences, bank statements, registration certificates and other such documents were recovered from them.

Anil told the police that he earlier used to work in a printing press. Later, he learnt some computer skills and also came in contact with some other persons who floated the idea of selling fake official documents, which are always in demand, and rake in money. They had been running the racket for the past one year.

The gang used to attract customers by pasting several posters in the locality promising them speedy loans. The police said Harkesh, an East Delhi resident, is presently working with Tata Indicom, a private mobile phone company, and was using his contacts to get mobile phone connections of his company to his customers on the basis of fake documents prepared by them. The subscribers used to discard the phone after running up huge bills.

They also claimed to have sold a large number of fake voter identity cards during the Delhi Assembly Polls last year. The gang had also been selling fake press identity cards. They had got the identity cards prepared in the name of some of the leading publications of the Capital. These apart, the gang also dealt in fake registration and educational certificates and even driving licences. Further, the gang had duped several nationalised and private banks by availing loans on the basis of fake documents. The police recovered more than 55 sets of prepared documents for loan sanctions from various banks, including ICICI and American Express, from them. They revealed they had got more than Rs. 30 lakhs worth of bank loans sanctioned against the fake documents. They were all set to avail loans worth over a crore of rupees in the coming few weeks.

The accused also told the police that they used to charge about 20 to 30 per cent of the loan amount as their service charge. For other documents, the rates varied between Rs. 2,000-3,000. However, for issuing the fake press identity cards the gang charged any where between Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 10,000. Further investigations in the case are on.

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