2 held in south Mumbai for making forged government documents

The police seized fakes of Aadhaar card, PAN card, voter identification card and several other government documents

The Mumbai crime branch on Saturday arrested two persons including a shop owner in south Mumbai for allegedly making forged government documents like Aadhaar card, PAN card, voter identification card and several other government documents. The police recovered from the accused several documents along with electronic equipment and government rubber stamps that were used to prepare the forged documents.

The police said the accused charged Rs2,000 to make a fake Aadhaar card. (HT file)

The arrested accused have been identified as Sunil Rambahadur Chaudhary, 29, and Attaullah Malik, 24. Both were produced in the court on Saturday and remanded in police custody till February 15. The police said Chaudhary, a school dropout, came to Mumbai in 2012 from his native Bihar in search of employment. He did odd jobs at several places before renting a shop in Swastik House, situated in Masjid Bander, in 2016. Chaudhary allegedly started making forged government documents at his shop with the help of agents. Malik worked in Chaudhary’s shop and helped him prepare fake documents, a police official said.

Unit 2 of the crime branch raided Chaudhary’s shop on Friday, after it received a tip-off. They seized, among others, 71 PAN cards, six laminated voter id cards, 10 Aadhaar cards, 234 blank smartcard driving licenses, four blank ATM cards, five Master and Visa cards of different banks, 10 rubber stamps of government departments and fake documents of government offices. The police also seized an eye and finger scanner, which were used to make fake Aadhaar cards, three scanner printers and three hard discs from the shop.