Seven held; accused would modify details on cards to sell land owned by dead people, non-residents

The Raigad Local Crime Branch (LCB) has busted a racket and arrested seven people who misused the e-Seva facility meant for Aadhaar cards to make cards in the name of dead people or those who had relocated to a different city or country. They made PAN cards using the modified Aadhaar cards, opened bank accounts and sold off land belonging to those people.

“In recent years, the cost of land in Raigad has shot up, and plots are being sold for several upcoming projects. Taking that opportunity, the accused sold land that belonged to people who were either dead or had relocated from the area many years ago,” Additional Superintendent of Police, Raigad, Sachin Gunjal said.

The accused have been identified as Ghanshyam Upadhyay, Kamalnath Dudhe, Chotalal Panchal, Narendra Panhalkar, Sandeep Longle, Praneeta Raasam and Punit Kumar Pandey.

The case came to light when a Roha resident lodged a complaint with the police this month about a land deal he was involved in. He said that during the transfer of the land, he learnt that the plot owner was dead.

“In the investigations, we found that the accused had made an Aadhaar card in the name of Sushil Ganesh Bhartu and sold his land. Our first step was to find the real name of the accused. We had a face and its biometrics, but the name and address given were fake,” senior police inspector Jamil Shaikh, LCB, said.

With the help of Ms. Raasam, who worked at an e-Seva centre, and Mr. Pandey, who had a private contract to make Aadhaar cards, the accused changed the details on their cards.

“Using the option to modify the details on the card, the accused changed the name and address on their own cards. The cards thus had the photo and biometrics of the accused, but name and address of the person to whom the land belonged,” Mr. Shaikh said.

The police did a reverse search of the card that was used in the Roha case, and found the original name and address corresponding to the photograph.

Based on this, they arrested Mr. Upadhyay early last week and then gradually picked up the others, with the last arrest, of Mr. Pandey, made on Monday. According to the police, four more people are wanted in the racket.

Mr. Pandey’s set-up was on the premises of a bank in Kandivali. Mr. Panhalkar, a friend of Mr. Upadhyay, contacted Mr. Pandey and got all the machines shifted to his shop in Kalyan. After making the required Aadhaar cards, the accused applied for PAN cards in the same names and managed to get some. Using these, they opened bank accounts to transfer the cash earned in the land sale.

“Till now, we have knowledge of three such land dealings in which they made changes to the Aadhaar card in question. We have seized the machinery used, the Aadhaar and PAN cards, and ₹10.5 lakh in cash,” Mr. Shaikh said.

He said the government should strengthen the rules to modify any details on Aadhaar cards.