The Mumbai police on Thursday claimed to have unearthed a major racket of fake ration cards running for the past year and a half by arresting 12 people
The Mumbai police on Thursday claimed to have unearthed a major racket of fake ration cards running for the past year and a half by arresting 12 people, including the kingpin and a lawyer.
The police said the mastermind was a person named Sandy, alias Sandeep Subhash Pawar. He was arrested on February 21. However, the police did not reveal his arrest fearing it would alert the others involved in the racket.
The lawyer, Noor Shaikh, 53, helped Sandy in preparing bogus legal documents needed for a ration card. Hyder Sarif, 62, a local newspaper reporter, and a builder also helped Sandy run the racket, the police said. All the 12 have been booked for cheating.
The police have also seized an offset printing machine, a computer, scanning machine, screening machine, and stamps with government seal, credit cards, 42 forged ration cards, electricity bills and a press card from an offset printing press in Vikhroli.
“The electricity bills, press card and other documents seized were all forged using the government seal and with forged signatures of government officials,” deputy commissioner of police (Zone VII) Dattatray Karale said. They had sold over a thousand fake ration cards, he said.
The matter came to light after a victim, Ravindra Singh of Vikhroli, lodged a complaint against Pawar with the Vikhroli police. Singh told the police that Pawar took Rs5,000 for issuing a ration card to him. “However, Singh was shocked when a rationing officer at Vikhroli told him the card was bogus,” sub-inspector and investigating officer Dilip Dhamunse said.
Acting on Singh’s complaint, the police laid a trap and arrested Pawar and his accomplices. Karale said, “During investigating, the accused revealed that they sold ration cards to those who were known to them. The ration cards were also sold to those without a document to prove their identity and those wanting to buy flats or open accounts with banks.”
The card was sold for a price ranging from Rs100 to Rs500 depending on economic status of the person buying it, assistant inspector Ravindra Sangle of the Mulund police station said. The police have denied the hand of any government official from the rationing department in the scam.
narayan@dnaindia.net
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