In a major catch, the city crime branch police busted a racket in which a duo had allegedly indulged in issuing fake government documents such as birth/death certificates, patta forms, election photo identity cards, driving licence and ration cards, among others, to needy public all for a “fancy” price.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, Inspector General and Commissioner of Police (Madurai City) P. Kannappan said that following a complaint from A. Sudanthira Marimuthu (50) of Madurai that some persons had “sold” his immovable property in Jeeva Nagar, Jaihindpuram, the CCB police had registered a case in August this year.
According to Sudanthira Marimuthu, in 1993, he had taken a loan of Rs 10,000 from Subbiah after depositing his original documents of an immovable property measuring 1.75 cents of vacant site in Jeeva Nagar here. In 2009, when he returned the money with interest, Subbiah did not return the documents. As he kept on dodging, Sudanthira Marimuthu ‘secretly' checked with the sub-registrar's office and realised that Subbiah had allegedly forged documents in such a manner that he (Sudanthira Marimuthu) had sold his property to Subbiah, who, in turn, had sold it to a person, whose name was given as Arumugathai Ammal, for Rs.10 lakh.
With the help of some persons, Subbiah and others had created fake documents, pasted photographs, impersonated and effected the sale transaction with the sub-registrar's office.
Based on the confessions, the Investigation Officer Pethuraj registered cases under IPC Sections 419, 468, 471 and 120 (b) among others against Subbiah and his accomplices on August 16, 2011. They were produced before a judicial magistrate court, which remanded them to judicial custody.
Meanwhile, an accused identified as Sivakumar, who was also wanted in connection with the above land grab-cum-cheating case, surrendered before a JM court here on September 15.
The Inspector of Police Mr. Pethuraj took custody of the accused and, based on his confession, detained M. Selvaraj (42) of Arisikara Street and Charles J. Alexander (45) of Jeeva Nagar. It came to light that the two accused were running a computer centre in the city and in possession of blank (read fake) documents such as birth certificate issued by the Madurai Corporation, death certificate, legal heir certificate, driving licence, bank pass books, elector photo identity card et al.
The accused also had fake seals of various government departments and sample signatures of officials with them. During investigation, Mr. Pethuraj and team realised that Selvaraj and Charles issued fake documents for a price. For instance, to issue a fake bank pass book, they charged Rs.2000. For issuing a fake patta, the duo charged Rs.1,500; for a driving licence Rs.1000 and for a fake PAN card Rs.1500.
Mr. Kannappan said that the modus operandi of the duo was to erase the details in a genuine copy of, say, a death certificate with whitener, scan it and take a print out. Now, the duo would fill up the blank forms with name and address and issue them to needy persons. Though it appeared genuine, it was actually forged.
For those seeking bank pass books to show them as residence proof for seeking any government assistance or a passport, the duo issued pass books of public sector banks, which appeared genuine.
Commissioner's appeal
Mr. Kannappan appealed to the public to ensure and crosscheck the genuineness of the documents while purchasing an immovable property through reliable agencies concerned and satisfy themselves fully. By applying for an encumbrance certificate with the sub-registrar's office, the status of the property details could be known. This, if done regularly, would discourage law offenders.
He said the police teams would soon conduct discreet probe with banks under whose names the duo had issued pass books. To a question, he said that the police would carry out random checks on computer centres in the city.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (law and order) R. Thirunavukkarasu, CCB officers among others were present.
Mr. Kannappan inspected the fake documents and the computer, printer used illegally by the two persons at the CCB office.
