AHMEDABAD: A dead man shopping? A web designer , Tarun Sureja , 32, a resident of Silver Gardanier Apartment in Gota made it possible by modifying a PDF copy of his own Aadhaar card , inserting the name of a dead man, Ajay Rathod. He used this to procure a credit card from a finance company.

Not knowing that Rathod is dead, thought that installment bills would go to him and the finance company wouldn’t be able to trace him. He bought electronic items like mobiles phones and LED televisions, worth more than Rs 1.69 lakh, using the credit card and sold them on an online marketplace.

When the installments were not paid, the fraud control unit of Bajaj Finserve Finance Company swung into action. “The complaint lodged by Abhijeet Girdharlal, 27, states that they found that Rathod had died six months ago and the person on the shopping spree was actually Sureja. We have arrested Sureja and are probing whether he is involved in other such cases of cheating ,” said Abhijeet Parmar, inspector of Navrangpura police station.

Inspector Parmar explained how the idea of manipulating his own Aadhaar card came to Sureja. “Three months ago, Sureja got a new mobile number. The number had earlier been held by Ajay Rathod, a resident of Aankodia village in Vadodara district but was surrendered after his death and was then allotted to Sureja,” said Parmar.

According to police sources, Sureja once went shopping at a showroom and found that he can get a credit card of a finance company if he registered his name and mobile number on the company’s portal.

“Sureja logged on to the portal and found that his cell number held was registered to one Ajay Rathod. He read in the conditions that items bought on the credit card would only be delivered to the residence and handed over personally,” said Inspector Parmar.

“He took a PDF copy of his Aadhaar card and put Ajay Rathod’s name in place of his. He kept his residential address, which was a rented place. He then took a printout of the manipulated Aadhaar card copy, and submitted it online to the finance company,” said an investigator.

Within a period of two months, Sureja bought five items, including LED TVs and mobile phones. He sold then on online marketplaces to monetize them.

