Police bust nationwide fake postal stamps racket, arrest three

The postal stamps used in the Indian Posts are printed at the India Security Press in Nashik. India Post has appointed 10 franchises to provide the stamps to the general public and sell them to various customers who have bulk usage

MUMBAI: The MRA Marg police have recently arrested three people after the General Post Office (GPO) busted a major fake postal stamps racket. The racket came to light after the postal department officials scrutinised certain postal letters and found the stamps affixed were fake or forged.

The postal stamps used in the Indian Posts are printed at the India Security Press in Nashik. India Post has appointed 10 franchises to provide the stamps to the general public and sell them to various customers who have bulk usage (HT Archives) (Arijit Sen/HT PHOTO)

According to the police, the racket was being operated from Delhi and Samastipur, Bihar, and the gang was selling the forged postal stamps at half their face value. They found transactions worth over ₹8 crore in the bank accounts of the accused.

In September, the chief postmaster general of Mumbai received a confidential letter from the postal department in Bhopal, stating that five letters from Mumbai had fake or forged postal stamps affixed on them. The stamps were then sent to the India Security Press, Nashik, which confirmed that the stamps were fake. When the postal department contacted the financial company that had sent these letters, the company said they had outsourced work to another firm, which in turn had a franchise owner, Rakesh Ramdhani Bind, 42, provide stamps, as it was a bulk order.

The postal stamps used in the Indian Posts are printed at the India Security Press in Nashik. India Post has appointed 10 franchises to provide the stamps to the general public and sell them to various customers who have bulk usage. One of the franchise owners, Bind from Sion Koliwada, was given a franchise in February 2024. The financial company had sent around 4,986 letters through him on June 10 and around 6,995 letters on June 13.

Ashutosh Kumar, 42, who works as a postal inspector with the GPO near CSMT, filed a complaint with the police. A case was registered under sections 178 (counterfeiting coin, government stamps, currency-notes or bank notes), 179 (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit coin, Government stamp, currency notes or bank-notes), 180 (possession of forged or counterfeit coin, government stamp, currency-notes or bank-notes), 181 (making or possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting coin, government stamp, currency notes or bank-notes), 186 (prohibition of fictitious stamps) and 318 (cheating) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

“Understanding the gravity of the matter, additional commissioner of police Abhinav Deshmukh and DCP Pravin Munde immediately formed teams to investigate the matter soon after the postal officials approached them,” said a police officer.

The police detained Bind on September 19, and during interrogation, he revealed that he brought the forged postal stamps from Delhi and Samastipur in Bihar. The police teams then left for Bihar and arrested the two accused from Samastipur – Shamsuddin Gaffar Ahmed, 35, and Shahid Raza, 35 – on October 16.

“When the police teams checked the five bank accounts of the Bihar-based accused, they found transactions worth around ₹8 crore. Our teams have found that they used to sell fake or forged postal stamps at half the rate and used to send them to the franchises or other accused via courier,” said the police officer. The police have also learnt that the accused sent forged postal stamps all over the country, and it is a nationwide racket. The accused are in police custody till October 23.