Aadhaar racket busted, biometric systems seized

NEWDELHI: Delhi Police on Thursday busted an Aadhaar card racket being run illegally in North Delhi’s Shastri Nagar and arrested two men. Fake stamps of the district magistrate, fake affidavits, 461 Aadhaar cards and biometric systems were recovered from the accused.

The accused were identified as Vikash Kumar(27) and his associate as Sushil Kumar (25). Police recovered from the accused a fake rubber stamp of the district magistrate (east), fake affidavits, 52 fully prepared fake plastic Aadhaar cards in the name of different people, 400 partially completed plastic cards, 54 visiting cards, three finger print scanners, two eye scanners, web cameras and laptops used for printing.

Police said the office had a sign board that mentioned, “Government Authorised Centre of Aadhaar Card”. Vikash Kumar told police that he had been running a photocopying shop in Shastri Nagar since 2013, commissioner of police (north) Vinit Kumar said.

“He and his associate then worked for a private firm authorised to issue Aadhaar cards as data entry operators. A user ID and password was provided to them for making Aadhaar cards. The men then procured equipment required for printing and scanning candidates profiles and started using the same user ID to make fake cards,” the officer said.

Police found that the men charged Rs 400-500 per Aadhaar card.

“The other accused Sushil Kumar corroborated the version of Vikash Kumar. Their version regarding the Aadhaar user ID having been reactivated and role of the company they worked with is being examined,” he said.

Both men were arrested after police received a tip-off about the illegal Aadhaar card centre.

“A police officer was sent to the centre who impersonated as a customer wanting to get his address on the Aadhaar card changed. He went to the shop and paid ₹500. In the meantime, a police team raided the centre and apprehended the two men who were found working there,” the DCP said.