UP ATS arrests man linked to gang manufacturing forged Aadhaar cards

SANT KABIR NAGAR: The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested a man for his alleged role in a gang involved in manufacturing forged Aadhaar cards, officials said on Thursday. The accused, Vinod Kumar Vishwakarma, a resident of Naurangiya village, was arrested late Wednesday evening from a shop in the Sabzi Mandi area under the Khalilabad Kotwali police station limits, according to news agency PTI. The arrest is part of an ongoing investigation into a fake Aadhaar card racket uncovered by the Lucknow ATS in August 2025. Several people were arrested during the earlier crackdown across multiple districts, including Gorakhpur. During the probe, Vishwakarma’s name reportedly came up for providing technical support to the network. Acting on this, an ATS team led by Inspector Kuldeep Singh, along with local Kotwali police, raided his shop and took him into custody. A laptop, a mobile phone, and several incriminating documents were seized from the premises. Station House Officer of Khalilabad police station, Jai Prakash Dubey, said the ATS team carried out a preliminary inquiry at the local police station before taking the accused to Lucknow for further interrogation.