The Central Crime Branch of police in Bengaluru arrested 10 persons on Monday for creating large-scale fake identity documents like PAN (permanent account number) cards, Aadhaar, vehicle registration certificates and driving license ID cards. According to police, the accused includes former employees of Rosmerta Technologies, a firm contracted to print these ID cards. Police said that the accused stole the data and this data was being stolen for the last two years.
Other than arresting the accused, the CCB sleuths also seized a large quantity of the fake identity documents and equipment like printers used to create these fake ID cards. This high profile development was announced by Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner Crime (Bengaluru) and City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant.
The seized items include 1,000 Aadhaar cards, 9000 PAN cards, 12,250 fake RC cards and 6,240 voter IDs which do not have government seals. Three laptops and Rs 60,000 in cash was also seized from the accused.
The fake document racket came to light with the arrest of Kamalesh Kumar Bavalia, a 33-year-old resident of Gullala village off Kanakapura Road. The CCB raided his residence based on a tip off and found his whole set up with which he carried out his fake racket business.
The other arrested include 37-year-old Puttenahalli resident Lokesh alias Salabanna,, 50-year-old Shantinagar resident Sudarshan alias Satyanarayana, 56-year-old Shantinagar resident Nirmal Kumar, 25-year-old Kengeri resident Darshan, 31-year-old Hassan resident Sridhar, 28-year-old Janabharati resident Chandrappa, 27-year-old Vijaynagar resident Abhilash, 30-year-old Basaveshwara Nagar resident Tejas, 35-year-old Vijay Nagar resident Sridhar alias Aditya Bharati.
Police said that based on the investigation, it came to light that the two accused who are residents of Shantinagar and run ‘Brigade Prints’ were also involved in this racket. Police also found some printing equipment at the residence of Lokesh.