Bengaluru police cheated by vendors with fake DDs for licence to sell firecrackers during Deepavali

So far, only 10 vendors, including three women, are named in the FIR, but police say that as many as 50 people tried to scam them

The Vidhana Soudha police are on the lookout for as many as 50 vendors who allegedly cheated the police commissioner's office by submitting fake demand drafts from a non-existent co-operative bank to avail a temporary licence to sell firecrackers during Deepavali last year. So far, only 10 vendors, including three women, are named in the FIR, but police say that as many as 50 people tried to scam them.

According to a senior police officer, the police commissioner had asked vendors selling firecrackers to apply for a temporary licence two days before Deepavali. As per the procedure, vendors had to give a DD of ₹5,000 to Fire and Emergency Services for an inspection and an NOC. After the inspection, they had to submit another non-refundable DD of ₹1,000 to the city police for their approval.

Based on the number of applications received, the police conduct an auction to award temporary licences to vendors to sell firecrackers.

The forgery came to light when officials of the administrative section submitted the DDs to nationalised banks to encash them. They were told that as many as 50 DDS mentioned a non-existing co-operative bank — ‘Kangar Co-Operative Bank Ltd., 8th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore’.

According to officials, five of the 50 accused had availed of temporary licences.

Based on a complaint by G.S. Ravi Kumar, first division assistant in the administrative section of the police commissioner’s office, the Vidhana Soudha police took up case on Thursday charging the accused for cheating and forgery.