Latur man held for fake Aadhaar, PAN card racket

PUNE: The Mundhwa police on Wednesday night arrested a 28-year-old man, Rahul Ippar, originally from Latur, for allegedly duping a number of people by issuing them fake Aadhaar and PAN cards.

Police have recovered 19 printed and 53 blank Aadhaar Cards, one PAN Card, computer, printer, scanner and software packages from the suspect.
Ippar, resident of Hadapsar, has cases of theft, cheating, forgery and criminal breach of trusts registered against him at Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Latur police dated between 2009 and 2017.
The Pune cantonment court on Thursday sent him to police custody remand till February 3.
Constable Shyam Shinde had received a tip-off from a reliable source that the suspect had been operating a shop at Mundhwa Chowk in Keshavnagar from where he was issuing fake Aadhaar and PAN cards for around Rs 500. He was also making corrections in the cards, like photo, name, address and date of birth.
A police team led by sub-inspector Amol Gawli sent a decoy to Ippar’s shop. A sum of Rs 500 was paid by the decoy to Ippar, who assured to provide the card within an hour. When it was time to hand over the fake card, Ippar was arrested. Police also recovered card making equipment, including a computer, a printer, a scanner and other materials from his shop.
Senior inspector Anil Patrudkar, in-charge of the Mundhwa police station, told TOI, “During questioning, the suspect confessed to his crime. He was issuing fake cards for the last three to four months. He was also involved in making corrections in original Aadhaar cards, though the change was not reflected on the cards uploaded on the government portal. After receiving the original Aadhasr cards, he used to change photos and addresses of applicants to make fake cards.”
Patrudkar said, “Investigation revealed that the government had not authorised Ippar. The facility is available at some banks and post offices only. Ippar, however, opened a shop and displayed a sign board illegally. He contacted people who know him personally for making a fast buck.”
“As of now, we have identified three people who were issued fake cards. We are verifying credentials of the suspect, whether he is the shop owner or running the business at a rented premises. People obtaining Aadhaar cards will be questioned to find out if they have obtained the cards with mala fide intentions,” he added.