The city police have arrested 13 persons on charge of furnishing forged documents in courts and impersonating surety in different cases for obtaining bail.
According to police, the gang had allegedly submitted forged documents and impersonated surety in around 150 cases related to Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and road accidents since 2016. The gang was allegedly charging somewhere between ₹2,000 and ₹20,000 as commission for impersonating surety. The police recovered fake Aadhaar cards, tax receipts, rubber stamps, solvency certificates and cash from the possession of the accused .
Modus operandi
The accused have been identified as Gurrala Koteswara Rao, the kingpin of the gang and a native of Guntur; A. Surya Narayana, a rowdy-sheeter; M. Jagadeeswara Rao and A. Venkateswara Rao. Nine other persons who allegedly supported the gang by impersonating surety persons were G. Munibabulu, G. Srinu, D. Eswara Rao, P. Krishna, T. Rambabu, P. Vinod Kumar, Ch. Bala Venkata Gopalarao, Ch. Jayakumar and K. Praveen.
“We received information about a gang involved in forging documents recently. The racket was busted during a raid in MR Peta police station limits,” Police Commissioner R.K. Meena told the media on Wednesday.
Mr. Meena said the accused would prepare fake Aadhaar cards by pasting pictures of the gang members on the original ones and forge the documents required for impersonators to attend the court as surety to obtain bail for the people remanded in different cases. “For NDPS case, the gang would charge around ₹5,000 to ₹20,000, while the same for accident cases would be in the range of ₹2,000 and ₹15,000,” said Mr. Meena.
According to DCP S. Ranga Reddy, the kingpin G. Koteswara Rao earlier worked under an advocate and learnt how to produce surety in the court. “Koteswara Rao learnt how to prepare fake solvency certificates. He had allegedly stolen 25 original Aadhaar cards and had been using them to forge documents since the last three years. Koteswara Rao trained the impersonators what to talk in courts,” said the DCP
‘Lawyers involved’
Mr. Meena said the accused had confessed to the involvement of four advocates who were helping them. “The gang is also allegedly involved in forging documents and certificates. We will probe to ascertain if the gang had any role in land scam,” he added.
