Graphic artist arrested for renewing passes illegally

The owner of a graphic centre has landed in trouble for fraudulently renewing the student bus passes issued by BMTC.

The police arrested 37-year-old Jagadeesh, a resident of Mahalakshmi Layout, who owns Creative Printers and Solution. They said the fraud came to light when the BMTC’s vigilance wing, during a routine inspection, found that a student’s bus pass had been renewed with a fake registration number. On investigating, the police stumbled upon the graphic centre. After visiting the centre, Shivananda Navadagi, an official from the central investigation bureau of BMTC, filed a complaint that Jagadeesh was illegally renewing bus passes for Rs 250 each.

Following his arrest, the accused confessed that he had been in the business for the past six months, and has processed around 60 passes so far.

There is no provision for the bus conductors to check the authenticity of the passes as the codes specified in the pass are known only to the officials of the department concerned, the police said.