E-Paper
52K fake birth certificates generated on bogus addresses to be cancelled
Over 52,000 fake birth certificates from 11 Rae Bareli villages will be cancelled after a scam was uncovered, linked to a broader network of fraud.
Over 52,000 fake birth certificates generated on ‘bogus’ addresses in eleven villages of Rae Bareli’s Salon will be cancelled, confirmed district panchayati raj officer (DPRO) Saumya Sheel Singh on Friday. The scam was exposed last year after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) red flagged certain certificates.
“A report on fake birth certificates issued from Rae Bareli villages was sent to the office of the director general (DG), Census, via the district magistrate (DM) of Rae Bareli around 15 days ago. The regional Census office in Lucknow has also been informed,” the DPRO said.
“As many as 52,594 fake birth certificates issued on bogus addresses in eleven villages of Salon block were identified during a verification drive carried out over six months in these villages. The cancellation of all fake certificates is recommended.”
A senior police official said the NIA, in the second week of July last year, had red-flagged certain birth certificates made on addresses in some of these Salon villages after recovering the documents from some people, including a few Bangladesh nationals who were arrested in several states. He said the UP Anti-Terror Squad had also joined the investigation.
“On July 17, 2024, the nexus in Salon was unearthed after the arrest of a village development officer (VDO), Vijay Yadav, a local Jan Suvidha Kendra operator, Zeeshan, his son Riyaz, and a minor involved in generating fake birth certificates using the government’s Civil Registration System (CRS) portal without mentioning proper address and other details of beneficiaries. The VDO’s login credentials were used for the purpose. An FIR was then lodged against the VDO and three others at the Salon police station for misusing the CRS portal, on July 16, 2024,” he stated.
The investigation officer, inspector Jitendra Singh, had said that over 4 lakh fake birth certificates and 5,000 fake death certificates were generated on addresses in 29 districts of UP and 13 districts of Bihar. During the investigation, four named accused and 13 others, including the mastermind of UP nexus Govind Kesari, who was Jan Suvidha Kendra operator in Sonbhadra, as well as 11 other such operators, were arrested and charge sheeted in the case.
The DPRO added the eleven villagers from where these fake birth certificates were issued were Dalhepur, Nooruddinpur, Prithvipur, Sanda Saidan, Madhopur Naniya, Lahurepur, Sirsira, Gadi Islamnagar, Aunanish, Gopal Anantpur and Dubhan. He stated the maximum number of 13,707 certificates were issued on bogus addresses in Dalhepur, 10,151 in Nooruddinpur, 9,393 in Prithvipur, 4,897 in Sanda Saidan, 3,746 in Madhopur Naniya, 3,780 in Lahurepur, 2,773 in Sirsira, 2,255 from Gadi Islamnagar, 1,665 from Aunanish, 225 in Gopal Anantpur and two in Dubhan village.
Notably, the Rae Bareli police had filed a 54-page charge sheet against all the accused in the case. UP Gangster Act was also slapped against the accused, who were part of a wider network, spread across several states, involved in generating fake documents to misuse them to avail the benefits of several government schemes.
