Representative image of police van
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Mangaluru: Urwa police have unearthed a racket involving the creation and use of fake Aadhaar cards and pahani documents to cheat government offices and courts.
According to Commissioner of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy C H, acting on credible information received around 9 pm on September 9, PSI Harish M R, along with the CCB team, rushed to Daddalkadu under Urwa police limits.
Around 9:30 pm, they found a man in a yellow shirt and blue jeans waiting by the roadside. On questioning, he identified himself as Abdul Rehman (46), resident of Bappanadu village, Mulki.
During interrogation, Rehman confessed that he had been creating fake Aadhaar cards in collusion with a man named Nishant, who runs an online store in a building at Kodialbail.
Using a computer, they allegedly edited Aadhaar numbers, names, phone numbers, photos, and addresses to produce forged identity cards. These fake Aadhaar cards were then used as genuine documents in various government departments and even submitted in courts to secure bail for accused persons.
Commissioner said Rehman was carrying two mobile phones. On checking his phone, officers found WhatsApp chats with Nishant that contained multiple forged Aadhaar cards. When scanned using official Aadhaar verification apps, the QR codes on these altered cards pointed to different individuals and addresses.
Preliminary investigation suggests that multiple Aadhaar cards were fraudulently created using genuine QR codes but with altered names and photographs, effectively creating cloned identity documents.
Police said the suspects Abdul Rehman and Nishant have defrauded both government institutions and courts through this racket. The commissioner said the investigation is underway and more arrests will be made in the case.