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LUCKNOW: Mahanagar police arrested five persons on Friday and busted a gang involved in preparing fake documents of the beneficiaries of various social welfare department and backward class welfare department schemes and using them to swindle the money.

The accused were identified as Bodh Ram and Ayesha of Lucknow, and Suman, Kaushalya, and Kusuma of Sitapur . The police also recovered 128 bank passbooks, 100 marksheets of various persons, caste certificates, and passports from the accused and is on the lookout for the other members of the gang. The accused were arrested after social welfare department and backward class welfare department on August 21 lodged a case against unidentified persons for fraudulently availing the benefits of government schemes.

ASP (trans-Gomti) Harendra Kumar said that Bodh Ram, the mastermind of the gang, used to prepare fake caste and domicile certificates of the real beneficiaries of welfare schemes. He used the fake documents to open bank accounts, got the money transferred to them and then withdrew it.

“The gang members also impersonated the signatures of government officials to avail the benefits of scheme and get bank account numbers of real beneficiaries changed,” said Kumar.

Prima facie, it is estimated that the gang had swindle over Rs 50 lakh, said police sources.

The gang mostly obtained widow pension scheme, government aid under marriage scheme and money disbursed to other backward castes.

The ASP further said that police are planning to hand over the case to economic offences wing (EOW) for a proper, detailed probe.

