The counterfeiters are now faking curfew passes, arguably the most precious commodity in the times of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Police have arrested a gang of five that was allegedly photocopying valid passes issued for essential and emergency services.
The gang was busted by B Dinesh Kumar Shetty, an assistant sub-inspector at the KG Halli police station. Shetty was checking vehicles near the Nagalingeshwara temple in Nagavara, Northeast Bengaluru. Around 1.30 pm on April 9, he asked the driver of a Maruti Omni (KA 04/Z 1165) to pull over.
The driver showed a curfew pass but Shetty found something amiss in it.
A closer examination revealed that the pass was actually a colour photocopy. The policeman then asked the driver to produce the original pass. The driver replied that it was an original pass that he had obtained from a man named Nadeem Pasha for Rs 500.
Fortunately for the driver, Pasha happened to be passing by, riding pillion on a friend’s motorcycle. The driver pointed in his direction. Shetty and his colleagues then detained Pasha.
A police investigation found that Pasha and four of his friends had sold many colour photocopies of a valid pass he had obtained from the office of the deputy commissioner of police (west).
The other arrested suspects are Mohammed Abdul Rehman, 25, Mohammed Junaid Qureshi, 21, Mohammed Rakeeb, 20 and Irshad Pasha, 46, all are residents of Gandhinagar, KG Halli.
A police officer warned the public against stepping out with fake passes.