Fake birth, death cert racket: Another held from Bidhannagar

Siliguri: A major breakthrough was achieved in the ongoing investigation in the fake birth and death certificate racket at Kharibari Rural Hospital. Police have arrested a youth from Bidhannagar in connection with the case. The accused has been identified as Subrata Ghosh alias Liton, originally a resident of Hili in South Dinajpur district. He had been living in Shanti Para, Bidhannagar, under Phansidewa Police Station for several years and reportedly ran a cyber café in the Paikpara area for the past four years.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team from Kharibari Police Station and Bidhannagar Investigation Centre under Phansidewa Police Station conducted a raid at the Paikpara cyber café on Wednesday. During the search, the police recovered several fake birth and death certificates from a computer inside the shop.

Subrata was immediately taken into custody.

According to police sources, a detailed search of the shop led to the seizure of two computers, one laptop, a retina scanner, a thumb scanner, a pen drive and around ten official seals, along with multiple forged certificates. Preliminary investigations revealed that Subrata used to charge between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 for issuing each fake certificate. So far, police have arrested 10 people in connection with the racket, which has been operating around Kharibari Rural Hospital for quite some time. Investigators believe Subrata played a key role in digitally creating and printing the forged documents using his cyber café setup.

Police officials confirmed that during interrogation, Subrata provided crucial information about others involved in the network. Efforts are now underway to identify and arrest the remaining members involved in the racket.

The accused was produced before the Siliguri Sub-Divisional Court on Thursday, further investigation is going on.