Six held for using forged FASTag cards to let vehicles pass through toll plaza

Prayagraj: Police on Friday claimed to have busted a gang involved in generating and circulating forged FASTag IDs\cards near Kokhraj toll plaza and arrested six of its members. The police also seized 20 illegal FASTag cards, four mobile phones and other documents from their possession.Those arrested were Narendra Verma of Rai Bareily, Mohd Alfaiz of Shivrajpur, Mohd Imran and Ehsham Khan of Kokhraj, Mohd Sharukh of Sirohi and Laxmikant of Purai Ka Pura.SP (Kaushambi) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava told TOI, “Cops had received input that a gang was involved in getting heavy and commercial vehicles pass through toll plaza after circulating forged FASTag cards near Kokhraj toll plaza. Following which, three special joint police teams including Kokhraj, Cyber cell and SOG\surveillance were deputed to crack down the modus operandi of the racketeers and ensure their arrest.” The SP claimed that joint teams arrested six key racketeers from different places. “It’s a new sort of cybercrime. Racketeers managed to receive agent ID of FASTag from different banks and start operating near toll plazas. Then, they create fake FASTag cards and depute their agents to contact drivers of heavy and commercial vehicles on the pretext of paying less amount on these cards to pass through toll plaza. Once the driver crosses the plaza, they take their forged FASTag cards back and offer another activated forged FASTag ID\cards for another toll plaza,” he said.With this method they used to help 70 to 80 vehicles pass through toll plazas daily and make Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000 per day as they got profit of around Rs 750 on every vehicle, said a cop adding that toll plaza authorities face heavy economic losses due to the forgery.