2 held for running fake licence racket

Two men allegedly running a fake driver’s licence racket were arrested on Wednesday from Trombay.

The Mumbai crime branch made the arrests after a tip-off. A search of their houses led to the recovery of 50 fake licences, a printer, scanner and several other machines that they used to make the licences.

Kamlesh, alias Munna Singh Giri, 40, and Baba Gujar, 50, live at Nerul in Navi Mumbai, the police said.

They have been producing fake licences for more than two years, the police said. Gujar was an agent at a Regional Transport Office and met Singh a few years ago. The police said their probe so far has revealed that the two men planned the racket as Singh was an “expert with computers”.

They would charge Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 to make a licence without asking for original documents. The licences they made looked so authentic, that at a glance, it was difficult for the traffic police to spot them as fakes, said a crime branch officer privy to the probe.

“We got tip-off about the scam and laid a trap in Trombay, as we came to know Gujar was going to deliver a licence there to a customer. We found 20 licences on him”, said Raju Tejale, police inspector, Unit 6 of the crime branch.

During the interrogation, Gujar told the police about Singh’s involvement, after which a team went to Singh’s Nerul residence.

They found 30 licences there, along with equipment such as a scanner, printer, computer and chips that were using to make the licences look authentic, officials said.

Singh was brought to the police station and he confessed to the crime. Both were produced in court on Thursday and remanded in police custody till April 20, Tejale said.