Issued fake election cards for customers

The motor vehicle theft cell of the Navi Mumbai Police has arrested two men for making fake election cards and using them to obtain genuine Aadhaar cards for their customers.

Mohammad Azad (29), an agent from Khairane village, made the fake election cards, while his accomplice Rohitkumar Yadav (29), a resident of Turbhe, would issue Aadhaar cards using election card data. Mr. Yadav worked at a government-authorised Aadhaar card centre, enabling him to upload the fake details into the UIDAI software and get his customers genuine Aadhaar cards.

“Mr. Azad would ask his customers only for their name and photograph to issue the election card. He would charge around ₹3,000 for this. Several people who had no documents to prove that they were Indian got forged election cards from Mr. Azad so they could get an Aadhaar card made,” senior inspector Shirish Pawar said.

While the Aadhaar cards issued were genuine, the details used to create them were forged. According to the accused, they have issued at least 200 such cards for people. Till now, the police have recovered around 25 of these cards and suspect that the duo’s customers could be illegal immigrants.

Mr. Azad, who is a B.Sc. in information technology, had a customised software designed to create the fake electoral cards by keying in the required information. He used to run ‘Aaple Sarkar Seva Kendra’ and ‘Tin-Pan Centre’ in Koparkhairane, where he would make PAN cards for people. Around six months ago, he started making fake electoral cards for people who did not have any documents.

Mr. Azad met Mr. Yadav at Andhra Bank in Sector 17, Vashi, where Mr. Yadav handled the Aadhaar updation section. “The duo struck a deal. While issuing the electoral cards, Mr. Azad would tell his customers to get their Aadhaar cards made from Mr. Yadav. The latter would enter the forged details into the UIDAI software and give the customer a proper Aadhaar card,” Mr. Pawar.

The two were arrested on Thursday and have been remanded in police custody till January 18 and further investigations are under way.