Shopkeeper arrested for selling fake forms to migrant workers for facilitating travel during lockdown

A 38-year-old shopkeeper was arrested for allegedly duping migrant labourers by selling them a fake form after claiming that it would facilitate their travel to their natives states during the lockdown, police said on Tuesday.

The accused, identified as Rajeev, is a resident of Punjabi Colony in Narela. He was selling the fake forms at Rs 20 each and misleading the migrants, they said.

According to the police, after the extension of the lockdown, reports were received that migrant labourer were feeling uneasy and were keen to return home. The train facility for shifting them to their states is under process.

The colonies with migrant population have been identified. The people residing there are being contacted and the updated status of government orders are being conveyed to them by continuous announcements in respective areas, they said.

The police, however, said they received inputs about some miscreants who were spreading rumours among the migrant workers about their transportation to their home states.

To identify them, patrolling was intensified in the area of Punjabi Colony, Narela , they added.

"During patrolling, when our staff reached near Shani Mandir, Punjabi Colony, they noticed a gathering of more than 30 people at a photostat shop and no social distancing norms were being followed," said Gaurav Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North).

On enquiry, the shopkeeper was found selling a fake form by telling migrant labourers that it would help them return to their states. He was misleading the poor people by telling them to deposit the duly filled in form in the police station, he said, adding there is no such government order to this effect.

"The accused is a driver by profession. He drives a van for a private school but as schools are closed during the lockdown, he was sitting at the photocopy shop run by his family," the DCP said.

Twenty-five copies of the fake forms were recovered from his shop and the accused disclosed that he had sold 20 copies so far at Rs 20 each, he said.