Two submit fake documents for passport, arrested

The main accused Dinky Arvind Singh, 23, first came to apply for her passport to the police station on August 1. Some days later, she was asked to provide the documents to prove her parents’ Indian citizenship. She provided a birth certificate of her father showing him to be born in Prayagraj Hospital, which the police later found to be fake. Another person Shivam Kanojiya was also booked by the police for the same reason

Mumbai: Malad police on Saturday booked two people for providing the police fake birth certificate of the applicant’s father to get their passports. They had used specific websites to make this fake birth certificate that the police intercepted during the verification process about which the officers had received training only a few days before the accused submitted the fake documents.

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The main accused Dinky Arvind Singh, 23, first came to apply for her passport to the police station on August 1. Some days later, she was asked to provide the documents to prove her parents’ Indian citizenship. She provided a birth certificate of her father showing him to be born in Prayagraj Hospital, which the police later found to be fake. Another person Shivam Kanojiya was also booked by the police for the same reason.

“We had forwarded all the documents provided to the special branch for verification. They told us that there are certain websites through which fake birth certificates, showing people to be born in Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, can be obtained,” said an official from Malad police.

“To be doubly sure of this, we asked the district officials in Prayagraj to confirm the birth of Arvind Singh in the government hospital on the given date. They did not have any corresponding records in their births and deaths registry,” said an officer.

As the police was making use of the training they had received to verify the authenticity of documents of the other applicants, the birth certificate of the father of another applicant Sivam Kanojiya also came out looking suspicious. In his case, the birth was shown to take place in the Community Health Centre of Mariahu in Uttar Pradesh. Following similar procedure, the district authorities were contacted and it was established that the certificate was not genuine.

Based on these findings, the two youngsters were booked under sections 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of a government document), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using fake documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code as well as under the Information Technology Act. The websites that were used to get these fake documents are now under the police scanner.