The APMC police have busted a gang who provided customers fake driving licences and arrested three people.
Of the three, Deepak Suryawanshi (25) posed as a regional transport office (RTO) agent, Dheeraj alias Narendra Maurya (25) ran a driving school in Kalamboli and helped get customers, and Deril Lobo (54) made rubber stamps for the fake licences. The police also seized 245 licences made by the gang.
Constable Kiran Raut of the APMC police station received a tip-off about the gang, following which constable Jaydeep Pawar approached Mr. Suryawanshi on September 27 posing as a customer. Mr. Suryawanshi roamed outside the Vashi RTO pretending to be an agent. He promised Mr. Pawar a licence without having to appear for a driving test for ₹5,000.
On October 3, as promised, he provided the driving licence to Mr. Pawar. The date of issuance on the licence was September 21, six days before Mr. Pawar had approached the accused. On checking the mParivahan app of the RTO, the police found that licence number was invalid.
245 licences seized
“Mr. Suryawanshi was arrested on October 3, and on searching his house, we found 143 fake licences, two rubber stamps in the name of Thane RTO and one of Panvel RTO. The accused would mail soft copies to a photocopy centre and take colour printouts. We found copies of 102 fake licences at the photocopy centre,” senior police inspector Satish Nikam said.
“Mr. Suryawanshi would loiter around the RTO office and make away with expired driving licences that were deposited in the store room. These would then be used to make the fake licences,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone I, Pankaj Dahane said.
The gang would scan the expire licences, modify them with editing software and then take a colour print. “They would change the licence number to any random one, remove the chip and paste it above the expired licence and then paste the print over it,” police inspector (crime) Basit Ali Sayyed from APMC police station said.
Assistant police inspector Bhushan Pawar and team are investigating how Mr. Suryawanshi procured the expired licences from the RTO store room. The trio was arrested under sections of forgery and forgery meant for cheating.
