Two persons were arrested in Gujarat’s Surat for allegedly forging documents like Aadhaar, PAN cards and voter ID cards, police said.
The accused were accessing the government database, which was a case of illegal authorisation and a serious issue posing threat to national security, he added.
The accused forged around two lakh identity documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards and sold them for ₹15 to ₹200 each, he said.
Acting on a complaint received from the officials of a private lender that some persons got loans processed on the basis of fake documents and defaulted on repayment, six persons were arrested for forgery and cheating, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences) VK Parmar said.
During interrogation, one of the six accused, identified as Prince Hemant Prasad, said he accessed a website using his registered username and password to download forged Aadhaar and PAN cards on payment of ₹15-50 per document, he said.
One Somnath Pramodkumar of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, whose name was linked to a number of mobile numbers present on the website was arrested through technical surveillance, he said.
One Premvirsinh Thakur of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, on whose name the website was created, was also arrested, he added.
“When questioned, they revealed to have forged around two lakh identity documents in two years. Somnath has studied till Class 5. He got technical help from certain people to carry out the illegal activity. The website has been running for the last three years,” he said.
It is possible many more persons are behind this, Parmar said, adding police had frozen ₹25 lakh in the bank accounts of Pramodkumar and his mother.
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