Aadhaar Forgery Ring Busted in Uttar Pradesh
UP ATS nabs 10 in fake Aadhaar racket.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) dismantled a sprawling inter-state syndicate forging Aadhaar cards for foreign nationals, including Rohingyas, Bangladeshis, and Nepalese, arresting ten individuals, including the mastermind, in a sweeping operation across the state. The crackdown, announced late Friday, targeted a gang operating in nine states, using sophisticated electronic and manual methods to produce counterfeit identity documents, according to Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order and STF) Amitabh Yash.
The ATS, acting on months of intelligence and surveillance, apprehended eight suspects initially from various Uttar Pradesh locations, with two additional arrests in Saharanpur late Friday evening. The gang’s reach extended to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Uttarakhand, exploiting vulnerabilities in the Aadhaar registration system. Members infiltrated legally registered Jan Seva Kendras, posing as temporary workers to master the process before illegally obtaining user IDs, passwords, thumb impressions, and iris scans to fabricate Aadhaar cards.
Middlemen connected the gang with clients lacking Indian documentation, producing fake birth certificates, residence proofs, and affidavits to facilitate Aadhaar issuance or modifications. Post-2023 restrictions on direct Aadhaar issuance for those over 18 prompted the gang to forge certificates misrepresenting clients as minors, charging between Rs 2,000 and Rs 40,000 per card. These fake IDs enabled clients to secure passports, access government schemes, and obtain other forged documents, posing a significant security threat.
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The ATS seized a cache of electronic devices, fingerprint scanners, iris-scan tools, dummy profiles, fake government stamps, and pre-prepared Aadhaar cards during the raids. A case was registered at Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar ATS police station under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 152 for endangering India’s sovereignty, alongside charges of forgery and cheating. Interrogations are ongoing to uncover the gang’s full network and operational details.
“This racket not only undermined national security but also exploited public systems for profit,” Yash said, emphasizing the ATS’s commitment to rooting out such threats. The bust has raised alarms about vulnerabilities in identity verification systems, prompting calls for stricter oversight of Aadhaar registration processes.
