Fake Aadhaar centre busted in Rudrapur, 1 held

Rudrapur: A 21-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly running a fake Aadhaar and PAN card centre disguised as a Jan Seva Kendra on Machhli Market Road in Transit Camp area of Rudrapur.Police said Chetan Kumar, a resident of Gaddha Colony in Simla Bahadur village, had allegedly been operating the illegal facility for a year. "The accused was editing photographs, names and addresses using software to forge Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and fabricated educational marksheets, which were allegedly used to secure jobs in SIDCUL-based companies," said Udham Singh Nagar SSP Ajay Ganapati. Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of local police and Kumaon special task force raided the premises and recovered 40 fake Aadhaar cards, 53 fake PAN cards, several forged marksheets, and equipment including – a printer, photo papers, desktop computer, biometric scanner and a mobile phone. Digital copies of forged documents were also found stored in the system.An FIR has been registered under sections 318(2) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery), 338 (forgery of valuable security), 340(2) (using forged documents) of BNS and an investigation is underway.The SSP urged citizens to avoid obtaining and using fake documents and to inform the police about any suspicious activities. "Strict action will continue against those involved in such rackets," he added.