11, including father-son duo, held for selling fake stamp papers

Busting a fake stamp paper racket, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested 11 people, including a father-son duo.

The gang prepared fake stamp papers and sold them to prepare illegal property documents dating them before 2002 when the state banned stamp papers.

The arrested men are Vishwanath, 57 and his son Karthik, 29, both from SBM Colony in Srinagar; Venkatesh, 54, of Sanjayanagar; Shamaraju, 48, of Nagashettyhalli; and their associates Shashidhar, Kariyappa, Ravishankar, Shivashankarappa, Gunashekhar, and Raghava N Kishore.

Police also seized around 2,664 fake stamp papers with a face value of Rs 5.11 lakh, a computer, a printer, fake documents related to four plots of land, including three General Powers of Attorney (GPAs), and around 119 fake seals of various government departments.

Police said the gang printed fake stamp papers with dates prior to the stamp paper ban in the state and sold them to people preparing fake property documents across the state.

Value of documents

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Raman Gupta said the police are extending their probe to find out who bought the fake stamp papers and are ascertaining the value of the fake documents.

The arrest follows a tip-off that people are selling banned stamp papers on the Kandaya Bhavan premises.

On July 18, head constable Naveen Kumar was sent as a decoy to buy the fake papers. Karthik took Kumar to his father’s shop where Kumar asked for five Rs 50 and five Rs 10 stamp papers.

Vishwanath took Rs 10,000 as advance from Kumar and asked him to collect the papers the following day, at 6.30 am.

On July 19, a police team rushed to Vishwanath’s shop at around 7.30 am and arrested Vishwanath and Karthik. The other members of the gang were arrested later.