The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has busted an inter-state racket involved in forging Aadhaar cards for foreign nationals, including Rohingyas, Bangladeshis and Nepalese people, a top officer said on Friday.
Eight gang members were arrested in a crackdown from different locations in Uttar Pradesh, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order and STF) Amitabh Yash said.
Late on Friday evening, the Uttar Pradesh Police said two more gang members have been arrested from Saharanpur.
Mr Yash said the gang used both electronic and manual methods to fabricate documents and was active in at least nine states.
"On the basis of information received for the past few months, along with technical and physical surveillance, it came to light that this gang was active in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana and Uttarakhand," the officer said.
According to him, the gang members worked in temporary jobs at legally registered jan seva kendras to gain knowledge of the Aadhaar-registration process. Later, they illegally obtained IDs and passwords of authorised users as well as thumb impressions and iris-scan photographs.
Using these, the gang created fake Aadhaar cards in different states.
Middlemen connected them with individuals who had no Indian documents and needed changes in their birth date or official records. For such people, fake birth certificates, residence proofs and affidavits were prepared to enable the issuance or modification of Aadhaar cards, the officer said.
The ADG noted that, in particular, after the restriction on issuing direct Aadhaar cards for people above 18 years post 2023, the gang circumvented the rule by issuing forged certificates showing individuals as below 18 years.
"For each fake Aadhaar card, the gang charged between Rs 2,000 and Rs 40,000. These Aadhaar cards were later used by people to obtain passports and other forged Indian documents, and to avail of government schemes," Mr Yash said.
A large number of electronic devices, fingerprint scanners, iris-scan tools, dummy user profiles, fake stamps of lekhpals and other government officers, as well as already-prepared Aadhaar cards and documents were seized from the gang members, police said.
The mastermind behind the operation is among "those nabbed".
A case has been registered at the ATS police station in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar and interrogation is underway to gather more details about their associates and modus operandi, the ADG added.
The FIR has been lodged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 152 (act endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India), among other charges such as forgery and cheating, police said.
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