The Kondamallepally police on Friday busted a fake passbook racket, arresting 13 persons and recovering 154 passbooks and ₹1.91 lakh from them.
They also seized 28 fake rubber stamps, 70 pass covers and other computer material.
District Superintendent of Police D.V. Srinivasa Rao said the 13-member gang from P.A. Pally, Damaracherla, and neighboring mandals had, for the past three years, been forging signatures of revenue officials from original pattadar books obtained from farmers, promising them crop loans.
The fake book makers sold duplicate passbooks at ₹10,000 per pair to middlemen and brokers, who in turn contacted the farmers.
With the duplicate ones presented in banks, they would arrange loans at grameena banks, the police explained.
Each loan ranging between ₹70,000 and ₹1 lakh was sanctioned through APGVB branch at P.A. Pally and Co-operative Bank in Gurrampode.
For each sanction, ₹10,000 was collected by agents based on the type of loan, and upto ₹30,000 if the passbooks were already pledged to the bankers.
Remand request
As their next step, the police present all the 13 arrested in this case before the Devarakonda court seeking their remand.
