Delhi Police arrests 2 for forging Aadhaar cards, govt IDs

Two men, including a web developer, have been arrested for allegedly running a website that allowed anyone to generate forged Aadhaar cards and other government identity documents by entering personal details, uploading a photograph and paying as little as ₹20 online, Delhi Police said on Monday

Two men, including a web developer, have been arrested for allegedly running a website that allowed anyone to generate forged Aadhaar cards and other government identity documents by entering personal details, uploading a photograph and paying as little as ₹20 online, Delhi Police said on Monday.

Senior police officers said the accused charged just ₹20–50 for forged Aadhaar and PAN cards (Photo for representation)

The accused have been identified as Bideshi Saw, who operated the website and Santosh Kumar, the back-end developer who designed and maintained its technical infrastructure. They were arrested after a cyber police officer came across the website while trying to update his Aadhaar card.

Police said the website offered forged Aadhaar cards, voter identity cards, PAN-related documents, residence certificates, caste certificates, and birth and death certificates for a fee. Customers were first required to recharge a digital wallet through a UPI payment code before placing an order. They could then upload a photograph and enter any personal details to generate documents resembling genuine government records.

Senior police officers said the accused charged just ₹20–50 for forged Aadhaar and PAN cards to avoid attracting attention, as such small transactions rarely came under the radar of enforcement agencies. They also did not advertise the website on social media for the same reason.

Police suspect that the forged identity documents were likely used for identity theft, impersonation, cheating and financial fraud, among other illegal activities.

Deputy commissioner of police, IFSO, Vinit Kumar, said, “To verify the information, investigators created a dummy user account, recharged the website wallet with ₹100 through the listed UPI ID and successfully generated a forged Aadhaar card and voter identity card using fictitious details. The payment trail and mobile number linked to the website led us to Saw in Daman and Diu.During interrogation, he disclosed that Kumar, based in Patna, managed the back-end operations of the website.”

Investigators found that the QR codes printed on the forged Aadhaar cards stored user-entered information rather than linking to any official government database, giving the documents an appearance of authenticity.

Both the accused were arrested last week. Investigators recovered laptops, mobile phones, a QR code sound box and digital records, including the website source code, hosting details, a customer database, payment records and chats between the two accused.

According to police, the investigation is continuing to identify other associates, trace the proceeds of crime, analyse the customer database and identify people who procured or misused forged documents obtained through the websites.