Surat: Document forging racket busted, 3 held

The Dindoli police has busted a counterfeit document making racket and arrested three persons including the kingpin and two agents working at the Regional Transport Office (RTO). The accused were experts in making fake Aadhar cards, PAN cards, election cards, vehicle registration cards and fake RTO payment challans, said police.

Police said that 36-year-old Vishwanath Saav, a school dropout, was the mastermind of the racket and had been in the business for the past few years. He was earlier arrested for forging documents in 2020 by Umra police.

Two others arrested on Monday in connection with the racket were identified as Mohammad Arif alias Shahrukh Shah and Akbar Sheikh, both residents of Marutinagar in Limbayat. They worked as RTO agents and were in charge of bringing customers to Saav.

The police first got lead about the illegal racket when they caught a man who had submitted a fake document. One questioning the accused informed them about Saav. The cops sent a dummy customer with Rs 2,000 to verify the information provided by the accused, which turned out to be true.

Immediately, police raided Saav's house in Aangan Residency in Dindoli and nabbed him. Police recovered a pen drive from the house that contained blank formats of important documents including Aadhar, PAN card, election cards, vehicle registration cards/books and that of RTO challan payment receipt.

On questioning, Saav named his accomplices Mohammad Arif and Akbar Sheikh who too were arrested. The accused have been booked under different sections of the Indian Penal Code including 467 (forgery of documents), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and under the Information Technology Act.

Other accused wanted in the case are Samir alias Tameta Sheikh, Mujahid Pathan and Sunil Panchal. On Tuesday Surat police commissioner Ajay Tomar appreciated the work of the Dindoli police and announced a reward for the team.