Ahmedabad: In their investigation into stealing of food grains from the public distribution system by fair price shop owners, the cybercrime cell of Ahmedabad police has found more than 1,100 casts of beneficiary fingerprints made on some silicone-like material. The modus operandi used by the racketeers is shocking as a fingerprint cast can be used to endorse any document, open locked apps and mobile phones and bypass bio-metric barriers that depend solely on fingerprints.In pursuit of the trail they have been following since December 2019, police have till date arrested 40 persons, with the last six arrested since Monday, January 3, said Rajdeepsinh Zala, DCP, cybercell. The mastermind behind the racket, Bharat Chaudhary of Banaskantha, had been arrested last December.The six arrested most recently are Shabbir Khatai, 45, of Gir-Somnath, Sandeep Kariya, 40, of Veraval, Manharsinh Dabhi, 26, of Amreli, Amit Vithlani, 35, of Veraval, Pancha Pamar, 43, and Aakash Marvadi, 46, of Ahmedabad. Bharat had made four applications for making fingerprint casts from soft copies and Manharsinh Dabhi used to act as a go-between with fair price shop owners for the gang, said an investigator.Sources said Chaudhary and his gang held soft copies and associated data of nearly 2,500 fingerprints.Corrupted fair price shop owners used to provide the fingerprints and data to Chaudhary, who used to take Rs 1,000 to prepare each fingerprint cast from scans. The fingerprint casts were then used to imprint fingerprints of poor people and siphon off their ration from the public distribution system. The food grains and other material were then sold in black in the open market with fair price shop owners pocketing the difference.“We still don’t know the material of the fingerprint casts. We have submitted some of these samples to the forensic experts to ascertain which material was used to embed fingerprints on it from a soft copy,” said a cybercrime cell official.Fingerprint casts - a Pandora’s box- Bogus documents can be validated- Pay apps locked by fingerprints can be accessed.- Imprints left by fingerprint casts can be used to frame people in crimes- Biometric locks and doors can be opened- Phones and apps locked with fingerprints can be unlocked- Anything requiring fingerprints including sim cards can be obtained- Transactions based on fingerprints, including bank withdrawals can be doneCan be disastrous for national interest: Jhala“This is a huge scam spread across states like Haryana. It is not only fair price shop owners who can misuse the fingerprint casts, it can be disastrous for national interest. Imagine your fingerprint being with someone. What may not he do in your name with that? More people may be arrested, and from other states,” said DCP Rajdeepsinh Jhala, cybercrime cell, Ahmedabad