This Article is From Apr 09, 2009

IM gleaned info from matrimonial web portals to get ID cards

Mumbai:

People registering themselves with online matrimonial sites in search for prospective life partners will have to think twice before doing so.

The 21 arrested members of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), responsible for several blasts, used this information including photographs posted on websites like Shaadi.com and Bharti.com to get student ID cards, which could be used to attain fake driving licenses.

This revelation was made in the confessional statement of one of the accused Anik Sayyed, a professional Desktop Operator (DTP), who was arrested by Mumbai crime branch from Pune last year.

The confessional statements of seven out of the 21 arrested IM members were opened on Thursday by a special MCOCA court in Mumbai and the copies were given to the other accused.

According to the confessional statement given before a magistrate by Sayed on October 24 last year considering his proficiency in computers, Ariyaz Bhatkal and Iqbal Bhatkal, alleged founders of IM, had assigned him the job of making fake identity cards for the other accused.

"I used to type matrimony in Google and open sites like Shaadi.com and Bharti.com and used to download photos of men registered on those sites. I used to then edit those photographs in Coreldraw and Adobe Photoshop and paste them on other documents," said Anik.

He said he also used information from the BSNL telephone directory to forge details for procuring SIM cards.

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