SIT formed after 10 FIRS filed in 3 months
THE ACCUSED ALLEGEDLY SUBMITTED FAKE SURETIES IN COURTS TO HELP THOSE ARRESTED IN CRIMINAL CASES OBTAIN BAIL
MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the surety scam in which touts arrange fake sureties for those accused in criminal cases. The SIT was formed with more and more judicial staff approaching the cops and 10 first information reports (FIRS) being registered in the past three months since the scam was unearthed on October 25, 2018.
Deputy commissioner of police, Dilip Sawant (crime), said an assistant commissioner of police will be supervising the investigation. “Ten personnel, including five inspectors, will be on the SIT,” he said. Unit-1 of the crime branch has so far arrested 28 accused in connection with the scam. Most of the arrested accused are residents of Govandi and Mankhurd and are school dropouts. They allegedly submitted fake surety papers in courts to help those arrested in criminal cases such as murder, cheating, robbery cases, obtain bail. Sawant said the SIT was formed after the cops realised the scam had spread to almost every court in the city and the crime branch required a dedicated team for the probe. “The seized documents were verified and were found to be fake. So, we wrote to all the concerned courts in the city and now more and more judicial staffers are approaching the local police to complain,” he said.
At least two dozen more cases are likely to come up during the investigation, said Sawant.
The surety scam came to light on October 25, 2018, when the crime branch picked up eight people outside the sessions court in Fort, including the mastermind Riyaz Ahmed Mushtaque Ahmed Pathan, alias, Papa. Papa confessed to running a syndicate in at least nine court premises across the city, including seven chief metropolitan courts and two sessions courts. According to the police, Pathan charged between ₹25,000 and ₹50,000 for fake sureties. The person appearing as a fake surety would get ₹5,000 to ₹7,000 as their cut.
The scam had more or less been an open secret among the Mumbai police and the court staff, but there was not enough evidence. However, now, unit- 1 of the crime branch have started studying how the racket functioned and how many courts have been affected by it.