Surat police busts fake citizenship scam; Indian citizenship being sold for Rs 3000 per person

Surat: The Special Operations Group (SOG) police have successfully busted a scam in Surat, where individuals were selling Indian citizenship using counterfeit documents at a cost of Rs 3000 per person.

The police noticed a queue of people at a mobile phone shop located below Gulshan-E-Raza Masjid in Sanjaynagar, near Nava Kamela in Umarwada, Puna area of Surat. Police had received information that the shop was involved in producing identity proofs using mobile phones and laptops.

Acting on the tip, the SOG conducted a raid at the shop and nabbed five individuals: 1. Amad alias Lakhan Mohammadkhan (32 years old), 2. Mehboob Yakub Shaikh (40 years old), 3. Vasim Badrudin Shaikh (35 years old), 4. Nurvajir Saiyad (27 years old), and 5. Sakalin Naimbhai Patel (25 years old).

Sharing the details of this scam which was compromising national security, Ajay Tomar, Police Commissioner of Surat City said that after making a payment of Rs 3000, individuals would receive fake evidence required for a counterfeit Aadhar card, including a birth certificate, election card, and residential proof. The documents would also be stamped with a government seal. These fake proofs were then submitted to an Aadhar card center, where the documents were not properly verified, resulting in the issuance of Aadhar cards based on fraudulent information. Many Bangladeshi nationals have obtained Aadhar cards through this illegal process.

It’s worth noting here that the Aadhar card issuance centers functioning at present have no facility to verify whether the birth certificates and election cards submitted are fake or real. Such centers have no facility to check whether the evidence submitted to get an Aadhar card is real or fake. The agency that creates unique ID number also doesn’t cooperate with police and refuse to share details as per the Supreme Court guidelines. Due to these loopholes, a foreigner can easily settle in the country. The Surat Police has conveyed these details to the Ministry of Home Affairs. When Police nab any Bangladeshi illegally living in India, it has to first capture some documents from his possession to prove that he is a Bangladeshi intruder. However, hardly two out of 100 Bangladesh intruders keep such documents with them and most of them also manage to get an Aadhar card followed by a Pan card. And these two cards can avail a person an opportunity to get even Indian Passport eventually.

The police confiscated a personal computer, three laptops, one printer, two fingerprint machines, and five mobile phones. Additionally, they recovered some password-protected documents, which were sent to the FSL (Forensic Science Laboratory) for further examination.

In addition to that, the team seized a total of 163 Aadhaar cards, 44 PAN cards, 167 election cards, 348 photographs of both men and women, 1,500 lamination papers, 43 electricity bills, 85 birth certificates, 11 e-filing slips, five school leaving certificates, and five tax bills.

The gang involved in the scam would modify the original documents of individuals to create counterfeit documents for others. Out of the five individuals, Noor and Saqlain were authorized agents for Aadhaar. There are suspicions that the gang assisted Bangladeshis in obtaining fake documents. Tomar stated, “We have caught one Bangladeshi individual who was in possession of a counterfeit Aadhaar card, and the case is currently under investigation.”

As part of the investigation, the police will track down all individuals who acquired fake documents from this gang and take appropriate legal action against them. All members of the gang have been charged with forgery and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). DeshGujarat