25-year-olds get old-age pension: CCB arrests tout from Rajajinagar

Police have arrested a middleman who created over 200 fake old-age pension certificates by forging the dates of birth.

Rajajinagar resident Chatur K S is accused of changing the dates of birth on Aadhaar cards by using Easy PDF Editor and other software. They showed many under-60s as having reached the age of 65 or more, a key criterion for getting the monthly old-age pension.

After receiving a tip-off, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) raided three places, including a shop run by Chatur in Rajajinagar. The CCB seized a laptop, six hard disks, four mobile phones and 205 old-age pension certificates and other documents from the place.

Another shopkeeper, Mannur Nagaraj, is absconding, according to the CCB.

According to police, Chatur filled out online applications for government schemes in return for a fee. The old-age pension scheme proved a golden goose for him as he charged Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per application. He filled out the old-age pension application form for people as young as 25.

All he had to do was download the applicant's Aadhaar from the Unique Identification Authority of India's (UIDAI) website, change the age in the PDF through editing software and apply online for the pension.

Since the deputy tahsildar's user ID is required to upload the documents for old-age pension applications, the CCB suspects the involvement of officials in the revenue department.

Following the racket, authorities are now verifying all old-age pension certificates.

Rajajinagar police have registered a case against Chatur and Nagaraj under IPC Sections 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) read with 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention). They also invoked Section 66A (punishment for identity theft) of the Information Technology Act.