Hyderabad: Five people were arrested in Telangana’s Adilabad district for allegedly forging government documents to generate fake voter identity cards (ID), Aadhaar and PAN cards.
The arrested have been identified as Shaik Harun (26), Abdul Shafique (31), Shaik Dilshad Ahmed (19), Abdul Rahman Khan (20) and Syed Naushad (26). All hail from Ichoda Mandal.
The case came to light after the Panchayat Secretary of Gundala Gram Panchayat, Mohammed Lukman, filed a complaint alleging his signature was misused.
Addressing a press conference on Monday, August 3, District Superintendent of Police (SP) Akhil Mahajan said the accused prepared a fake rubber stamp in the name of the Panchayat Secretary and forged his signature. “With technology, they created fake birth, death, marriage and house tax certificates, and other gram panchayat records,” the officer said.
Using these documents, they generated fake voter IDs, Aadhaar and PAN cards and started selling them to ineligible persons who obtained government benefits illegally.
Shaik Harun, who is the prime accused, confessed to the crime, leading to the arrest of the remaining four. However, one person is on the run.
Police seized electronic evidence, including laptops, CPUs, monitors, printers, hard disks, mobile phones, a fingerprint scanner, web camera and other devices. A fake rubber stamp, forged voter IDs, a fake birth certificate and several other forged documents were also recovered.
A case has been registered against the accused under Sections 318(4), 338, 340, 341(2) read with Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Section 66-D of the Information Technology Act and Section 35 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016.
Further investigation is in progress.
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