The Bangalore police have arrested two persons on charge of producing fake court orders for the purpose of getting birth certificates from the Bruhat Bangalore Maharanagara Palike.
A 64-year-old retired engineer from Indian telephone Industries (ITI), Bangalore, identified as Kannappa, was arrested on charges of cheating and forgery, and the police confiscated from him 150 forged court orders.
Kannappa allegedly created fake orders of the City Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court orders to obtain birth certificate for his clients. The police arrested Azeez, a tout, and are in search of another tout called Shivu, who is also allegedly involved in the racket.
When the court staff received the court order from the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) for verification, they found that court order was fake and the seal and the signature of the magistrate were forged. Deputy Registrar of the court Arjun Mallur lodged a complaint with the Ulsoor Gate police station following which Kannappa from J.P. Nagar and Azeez from R.T. Nagar were arrested and sent in judicial custody recently.
Besides an engineering degree, Kannappa had obtained bachelor’s degree in Law, so, post-retirement, he started practising law. When clients approached him to get birth certificate, Kannappa would charge a minimum of Rs. 15,000 from each client, and would forge the court orders.
The right way
As per the procedure, applicants should obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the BBMP and approach the court seeking order from the magistrate to get the birth certificate. After admitting their plea, the court hears their matter and calls for objections. Then, the court passes the order directing the BBMP to issue the birth certificate to the applicant. After receiving the order, the BBMP sends the court order back to the court for verification before issuing the birth certificate to the applicant concerned.
As the procedure takes at least six months, applicants who need the birth certificate for getting a passport done, would pay Mr. Kannappa through his touts to get the certificate at the earliest.
“We suspect that there are more people involved in the racket and investigations are on to trace the other members”, a police official said.
