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HYDERABAD: The city has turned into a hub for churning out multiple voter ID cards and PAN cards with fake addresses and names. This was unearthed during investigations by Hyderabad cyber crime police into role of mules in Nigerian fraud cases. Mules are people who offer bank account numbers to channel tainted money. It was found that the mules use multiple original PAN cards issued by the IT department and voter cards issued by Election Commission of India to open various bank accounts.

For instance, two accused against whom Preventive Detention Act was invoked by Hyderabad police commissioner M Mahender Reddy were in possession of multiple ID cards with the same photo, but different names. Even anti-trafficking experts say that Bangladeshis illegally entering the country are coming to Hyderabad to gain access to quick documentation, gain legality and then move on to other places.

“This is an organised gang that first gains multiple voter ID cards by filing online applications using fake addresses and fake name, but with the same photograph. After ECI issues the voter cards, they used them to get PAN cards, using which they open bank accounts. Now, IT department is insisting on Aadhar linkage with PAN card, but this was not the case till recently,“ cyber crime inspector, A Ravi Kiran, told TOI.

Recently, PD Act was invoked against Aditya Kumar alias Jaspal Jawahar Yadav, a resident of Madhapur and native of Tajpur in Muzaffarpur district. “Aditya Kumar used his photo and, with the help of agents, got both voter ID and PAN card in various na mes to open multiple bank accounts. He then rented these accounts to Nigerian fraudsters, who paid him a monthly salary of `20,000 and a commission of around 1-5 per cent on each successful fraud,“ Ravi Kiran explained.

Aditya was involved in three cases of creating fake ID proofs and had opened 40 savings and current accounts in various banks, including SBI, Andhra Bank, Axis Bank , ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Indus Ind Bank . He then provided the account details to the second accused, Kabhir Khan, resident of Mumbai and native of Bihar.Khan gave the accounts to fraudsters on commission basis. The Nigerians were using these bank accounts for crimes such as visa fraud, lottery frauds and even hacking cases that were registered in the Hyderabad and Cyberabad commissionerate limits.

Preventive Detention Act has been recommended against another accused, Pervez Mohammed, an associate of Aditya.

