Woman who bailed out accused on fake surety held

She used to bail out those involved in criminal cases by offering forged documents as surety. In the business for a year, she used to charge Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 to secure a bail.

But Savithri, a high school dropout, ran out of luck on Saturday.

An alert woman constable on court duty, attached to the Electronic City police station, nabbed the 35-year-old when she appeared in the court with a different name and a different set of documents to bail out an accused involved in a criminal case.

The constable (name withheld on request) found out that Savithri had used her photos on two documents under two different names ‘Rukmini’ and ‘Lakshmi’ which were submitted to the court earlier. The husband’s name was also different in the two cases. One was ‘Chandran’ and the other was ‘Kumar’.

Savithri was handed over to the Halasuru Gate police who booked her for forgery and cheating.

Further inquiries revealed that Savithri hailed from Byrapatna of Channapattana taluk. She told the police that she did not have any direct relationship with the accused, but was bailing them out in return for cash to feed her two children. Savithri had Aadhaar cards and voter IDs with two different names, and also a passport. She used to submit fabricated land documents as surety before the court to bail out the accused.

She worked alone and her area of operation was the city civil and sessions court complex. She would use her network to find out whether anyone wanted surety for bail for cash.

She used to charge Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the financial status of the accused, a senior police officer said. The accused, once out on bail, used to jump bail. The police won’t be able to trace the surety as the documents were all forged, the officer said.