Hyderabad: Certificate forgery racket busted, six arrested in Saroornagar

Investigation revealed the racket’s involvement in forging birth certificates without necessary documents like hospital discharge summaries or Aadhaar cards

Hyderabad: The Rachakonda SOT officials along with the local police busted a sophisticated certificates forgery racket and nabbed six persons in Saroornagar on Thursday.

The arrested persons are T Venkata Bhanu Prakash, a notary maker, his wife T Sagarika, a DTP operator, A Chandrashekhar, his son Anil, and Mohd Jaleel, agent of fake birth certificates. The absconding persons are Syed Feroz Ali, P Mallesh Goud, Praveen, Sudheer, both outsourcing municipal employees and others.

According to the police, Saathwik Enterprises located opposite the Municipal Office, Saroor Nagar was raided and the suspects were found to be involved in preparation and sale of fake sale deeds, birth and caste certificates using outdated non-judicial stamp papers, counterfeit rubber stamps, and forged signatures.

“These forged documents were being sold to land grabbers and fraudsters for substantial profits, consequently causing severe civil disputes and legal complications for genuine individuals,” said G Sudheer Babu, Police Commissioner, Rachakonda.

Investigation revealed that Prakash and his wife Sagarika had been operating Saathwik Enterprises for the past nine years. Initially, they were engaged in preparing legal documentation such as rental agreements, affidavits, and sale deeds using genuine non-judicial stamp papers procured from other suspects. However, over time, Prakash began exploiting the system by procuring unused and outdated stamp papers at higher rates.

“He would erase existing details on the stamp papers using chemicals, forge rubber stamps and signatures of notary advocates, licensed stamp vendors, medical professionals and government officials and prepare counterfeit sale deeds. These fake documents were sold at a rate of Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 20,000 each,” Sudheer Babu said.

In the past year alone, approximately 280 fake sale deeds were created using stamp papers of various denominations

Investigation revealed the racket’s involvement in forging birth certificates without necessary documents like hospital discharge summaries or Aadhaar cards. The kingpin, with the support of municipal outsourcing employees from Narsingi, Kamareddy, Bandlaguda Jagir municipal offices, generated official birth certificates and collected them from Mee Seva centers. Around 181 fake birth certificates were issued over the past one and half years.