Fake bail bond racket busted in Ludhiana, nine held

The accused were running a fake bail bond racket in the Ludhiana court complex and would prepare fake Aadhaar Cards by getting ahold of land records from the revenue department; the collusion of the staff in the bail bond racket is also being probed

With the arrest of nine people, the Ludhiana Police busted a fake bail bond racket that had been operating in the district court complex on Thursday.

The fake bail bond racket was being run in the Ludhiana court complex for two years. (HT PHOTO)

The accused are Rajender Kumar Sood of Manakwal village, Mandeep Singh of Shimlapuri, Bhupendra Singh of Daba, Babbar of Phagwara, Ravinder Singh of Majri village, Pushpendra Singh of Shimlapuri, Gurpreet Singh of Manakwal, Manpreet Singh of Dhandra Road and Vijay Kumar of Jawahar Nagar.

Deputy commissioner of police (DCP, detective) Simratpal Singh Dhindsa said the well-oiled network, which was helping criminals post bail with the help of forged documents, had been operating in the district court complex for two years.

Dhindsa said the accused would prepare fake Aadhaar Cards by getting ahold of land records (fard)from the revenue department and the collusion of revenue department employees in the racket is also being probed.

“We cannot rule out the possibility of the accused having contacts in the revenue department and district court complex,” the DCP said, adding that 32 fake Aadhaar Cards, 12 land documents and one voter card had been recovered from the possession of the accused.

“We are preparing a list of criminals whom the accused helped secure bail with the fake documents. Most of the beneficiaries were snatchers and thieves,”said the DCP.

“We will write to the judicial authorities asking them to install a mechanism or scanner to check the veracity of the Aadhaar Card submitted,” said Dhindsa.

Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, investigation) Rupinder Kaur Bhatti, said Sood was the kingpin of the gang that had been active in the district complex, while Manga was working as a Munshi with an advocate.

“The gang charged anything between ₹2,000 to ₹10,000 to furnish bail bonds. The accused had been operating separately in the court complex for the last few years, but Sood had brought all of them together,” said Dhindsa.

A case was registered under Section 420 (cheating) , 465 (forgery), 467 (forge document), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (use forged document as genuine). They were presented before a court and sent to remand.

How racket was unearthed

The police got ahold of the gang after they noticed that snatchers and thieves were easily getting bail, and committing the same crime. When the police probed the matter, they realised that fake documents were being used by the accused, who were posing as guaranteers.