Man arrested for using fake docs to help drivers get auto permits

Mumbai police arrest man for forging documents to help autorickshaw drivers get permits, suspecting a larger scam. Accused charged ₹10,000 per permit.

MUMBAI: The police on Thursday arrested a person accused of forging identity documents to help autorickshaw drivers get permits in the city. The Vile Parle police suspect that this scam was being done on a much larger scale.

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According to officers, the arrested accused Ganesh Kumar Khiru Shah took money to fake documents proving a person’s residency in Mumbai was longer than it is. This was being done to circumvent the Regional Transport Office rule about the permits being awarded to people only after at least 15 years of residency in the city.

Assistant inspector Basvaraj Tamashette and sub-inspector Omase, who were investigating the case, got information about the operation being run by Shah. They raided his shop on Shraddhanand Road on Thursday night during which they recovered a laptop, two printers, a mobile, two WiFi routers and Aadhaar cards from several addresses in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

“The accused used to change the name and address on any electricity bill. He would also change the address on the Aadhaar cards to reflect the change of address being shown in other supporting documents,” said an official from Vile Parle police. He added that as soon as the address was changed, the clients would submit those fake documents to the RTO to obtain the permit to drive auto rickshaws in Mumbai.

Generally, it costs ₹3,500 to get an auto permit. However, the accused used to charge each person around ₹10,000 for getting a permit made, said the officer.

Based on their findings from the raid, the police seized the goods present there and registered an FIR under sections 420 (cheating by dishonesty), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code. Police are now going through the seized documents and getting in touch with people whose information they have found on the laptop.