Delhi Police bust fake Aadhaar card racket, 2 held

New Delhi, Nov 10 The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has busted a racket in the national capital which was involved in making fake Aadhaar cards using the fingerprints/iris of minors and vagabonds without their biometric data available with the Aadhaar authorities. Earlier, eight members of the gang were arrested while two others have now been arrested by the EOW.

These Aadhaar cards were used for making PAN and voter ID cards presuming them as genuine. The accused persons also used photoshop to create fake PAN and Voter ID cards charging Rs 5000-10,000 for each of these cards and Rs 25,000 for each Aadhaar card.

The two accused persons have been identified as Umesh Chander and Ravi Sachdeva, who made PAN, Aadhaar cards and voter IDs on the basis of fake documents and obtained credit cards from various banks in their names.

Umesh Chander worked as an operator in an authorised firm processing the data for making Aadhaar cards. He was aware about the entire process of making Aadhaar cards. He set up his own office in Delhi's Mangolpuri area and worked as an agent for firms such as O-series, Gujarat Infotech and NVR, authorised by Aadhaar authorities for making the cards.

The accused persons approached Chander for making multiple Aadhaar cards using photographs of the same person.

"Since biometrics such as fingerprints/iris is necessary for making each Aadhaar card and two Aadhaar cards cannot be issued on the same biometrics, the accused persons used biometrics, ridges of feet of teh same person for making two different Aadhaar cards. The accused Umesh Chander also used fingerprints/iris of minors and vagabonds without making their biometrics available with the Aadhaar authorities," said O.P. Mishra, Joint Commissioner of Police (CP), EOW.

During investigation, it was found that while making these fake IDs, the accused had changed their facial appearances by either keeping a bearded or clean shaven look. These IDs were prepared using different surnames by the same set of persons.

( With inputs from IANS )