The Guntur police have busted a gang altering the date of birth on the Aadhaar cards of people in order to make them eligible for the Jaganmohan Reddy government’s welfare schemes like YSR Cheyutha.
The group of eight men, most of them in their twenties, were forging the signatures of the gazetted officers and using counterfeit rubber stamps creating fake documents for the authentication purpose.
Two youth - Adapala Sai (23) and Shaik Khaja (38) – are operators of the Aadhaar centres at two nationalized banks, who joined hands with others.
After confirming their illegal activity, the Guntur police arrested them on Wednesday, and seized laptops, iris camera, GPS devices, fingerprint scanner, rubber stamps, Aadhaar update forms etc., and some cash.
The gang was operating from a rented room in a market complex on Pedakakani Road in Guntur town and offering their fraudulent services to several people, especially women from the district, through the help of agents.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Reddy had, earlier this month, launched a welfare cum entrepreneurial program for women named “YSR Cheyutha”.
Under the handholding scheme, approximately 23 lakh women aged between 45 and 60 years hailing from the SC, ST, BC, and minority communities are given Rs 18,750 per year for four years aggregating to Rs 75,000, to help them build a sustainable livelihood.
“The gang was altering the age of women between 35-44 to over 45 years on their Aadhaar cards to make them Cheyutha beneficiaries. They were collecting Rs two to five thousand from each gullible woman,” R Suresh Babu, inspector of the Old Guntur Police station told DH.
“We have sought information from the UIDAI to know how many such false cards/records were made. We suspect it to be at least in hundreds,” Babu says.
Those less than 60 years old were also shown as senior citizens to make them avail old age pensions, officials said.
The men are booked under various IPC sections like 420 (cheating), 467 (document forgery), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seals etc.,).