Major security breach as Gujarat duo forge Aadhaar, PAN, voter IDs

Two persons were arrested in Surat in Gujarat for allegedly forging documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards as well as voter IDs using a website, in the process posing a serious threat to national security, a police official said on Monday.

The accused forged around two lakh identity documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards and sold them for Rs 15 to Rs 200 each, he said.

The accused were accessing the government database, which is a case of illegal authorisation and is a serious issue, he added.

Acting on a complaint received from the officials of a private lender that some persons got loans processed on the basis of fake documents and defaulted on repayment, six persons were arrested for forgery and cheating, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Economic Offences) VK Parmar said.

During interrogation, one of the six accused, identified as Prince Hemant Prasad, said he accessed the website in question using his registered username and password to download forged Aadhaar and PAN cards on payment of Rs 15-50 per document, he said.

The fake identity cards downloaded from the website by making the payment were used for purposes like getting bank loans sanctioned and purchasing SIM cards, the official said.

One Somnath Pramodkumar, a resident of Ganganagar in Rajasthan, whose name was linked to a number of mobile numbers present on the website was arrested through technical surveillance, he said.

One Premvirsinh Thakur, a resident of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, on whose name the website was created, was also arrested, he said.

"When questioned, they revealed to having forged around two lakh identity documents in two years. Somnath has studied till class 5th. He got technical help from certain people to carry out the illegal activity. The website has been running since the last three years," he said.

"This is a serious national security issue. They are not changing but accessing the government database and that is a case of illegal authorisation," the official said.

It is possible many more persons are behind this, Parmar said, adding that the police had frozen Rs 25 lakh in the bank accounts of Pramodkumar and his mother.