Madanayakanahalli police have arrested three men, including a 22-year-old Bangladeshi national, for fraudulently obtaining an Aadhaar card.
Besides the Bangladeshi, the two others arrested are Vijay Kumar Singh, 34, a resident of Dasanapura and owner of ‘One Step All Solution’ Cyber Centre; and Noushad Pasha, 23, a resident of Padarayanapura, Mysuru Road.
Police said the Bangladeshi national, Rana, decided to migrate to India after the pandemic hit his country in 2020. He squeezed through the border into West Bengal and later arrived at Bengaluru where he worked as a ragpicker.
Rana was one of the Bangladeshi nationals who obtained an Aadhaar card using fake documents, about which Madanayakanahalli police head constable Chandru received a tip-off. A police party headed by inspector B S Manjunath first picked up Rana and later swooped down on Singh and Pasha.
Rana confessed to the police that he had applied for the Aadhaar card at Singh’s cyber centre paying Rs 3,000. Police raided the centre and seized computers and other gadgets. Singh said he got the Aadhaar cards with help of the middleman, Pasha.
The gang had a seal and signature of a retired homeopathy professor at the Government Homeopathy Medical College, Bengaluru, on Rana's Aadhaar enrollment form. Later, they submitted the forged documents and got him the card.
While Singh and Pasha generated Rana’s Aadhaar card, they could not download it because Rana gave a mobile number which he was not using in India and was therefore, unable to receive the one-time password needed to download the card.
Police said Singh changed the address for 20 Aadhaar card holders from Assam and Uttar Pradesh and secured five new Aadhaar cards. One of them was for Rana, while the rest were for four Uttar Pradesh natives.