Fake driving licence racket busted in Navi Mumbai, RTO agent among 3 arrested

An RTO agent and two of his associates, who were allegedly involved in making duplicate driving licences, were arrested recently. The fake licence racket was been

An RTO agent and two of his associates, who were allegedly involved in making duplicate driving licences, were arrested recently. The fake licence racket was been run from the premises of the RTO office in Vashi.

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The gang used to get the expired licences deposited with the RTO and use them to make duplicate ones.

APMC police arrested RTO agent Deepak Suryavanshi, 30, along with his accomplices Narendra Maurya, 25, and Derel Lobo, 54.

“Interrogation has revealed that they had sold duplicate licences to at least 245 people. They have confessed that they had been involved in the racket for the past two years,” said deputy commissioner of police (zone I) Pankaj Dahane.

“Maurya has a driving school business. He used to send prospective customers to Suryavanshi. Lobo had prepared a fake RTO stamp that they used to make fake licences,” he added.

Dahane said, “The expired licences are discarded near the RTO office. Suryavanshi would collect them and remove the original chips engraved in them. He would replace them with fake chips.”

A search conducted at Suryavanshi’s office and his email account confirmed that at least 245 people have got fake licences. He used to charge Rs5,000 for a fake licence.

Dahane said, “We have learnt that fake licences have been sold to some criminal elements too. Our investigations are on.”