Nine including six B’deshis held for making fake Aadhaar cards

Police arrested six Bangladeshi nationals and three Indians from North 24 Parganas Baguiati area on the charge of making fake Aadhaar cards.

The accused were produced before the Barasat District Court and remanded in police custody for four days.

“We have arrested nine persons including six Bangladeshi nationals. The accused were living in a house at Baguiati. The owner of the house, Dipankar Mondal, had rented the house to the Bangladeshis,” said an investigating officer.

“The three Indians used to work with a private company ‘Karvi-Sankalp’ which had taken the franchise for creating Aadhaar database for some places in West Bengal. They were using the machines by which database of Aadhaar can be made,” the officer added.

“We arrested a Bangladeshi national, Subrata Kumar Kundu, who is secretary of Khulna Bar Association. Kundu was taken to that house by one of the accused person. He promised him to make an Aadhaar card by his name. His photographs, signature, thumb impression were taken. He gave them a hefty amount of money,” said the investigating officer.

“The Bangladeshi nationals were earlier living in Barasat. Later, they came here in Baguiati for doing a better business. They have a huge client base,” the officer suspected.

A team of detective department, Bidhannagar Commissionerate, has started an investigation into the racket and is looking to arrest other members of the gang.

“These nine accused were a small part of the racket. We believe, other racketeers are present in Kolkata, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly. The investigation is in a premature stage. We cannot divulge more details,” the officer added.

A Bangladeshi man, staying illegally at Rajarhat, was arrested for allegedly issuing over 15,000 fake Aadhaar cards and other photo identity cards and documents in 2014. Police also arrested his three associates.