Five persons, alleged to be the members of a gang that provide fake birth certificates to the people after taking a charge for making of passports, have been arrested, police said here today.
Acting on the complaint of Regional Passport officer at Jalandhar, Sandeep Singh -- who runs a study visa centre at Jalandhar, Gurpreet Singh and Dhanpat Rai -- both typists outside the regional passport office at Jalandhar, Prince and Kulwinder Singh Sidhu both typists in district courts complex at Kapurthala were arrested, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Dhanpreet Kaur said.
Passport Officer at Jalandhar had complained to DIG Jalandhar range on October 22, that some discrepancies were found in the applications of 19 persons from Kapurthala district, and on verifications from Civil Surgeon Kapurthala found their birth certificates were fake.
On the directions of DIG Jalandhar range, police registered a case of fraud under various sections of the IPC against 19 persons who had applied for the passport by submitting fake birth certificates.
The SSP Kapurthala had ordered a probe into the case.
Following which, police arrested the five accused who had prepared six birth certificates while the investigation in the 13 cases were going on, he said.
Police said there was a nexus between Sandeep Singh, Gurpreet Singh and one Ajay Kumar who allegedly used to charge Rs 7,000 for making fake birth certificates from the client while Kulwinder Singh Sidhu allegedly used to charge Rs 3,500 after obtaining blank certificates from a peon of local civil hospital.
The SSP said that investigation was going on in 13 other cases and more arrests would be made in this case soon.
He said that 19 applicants who had applied for the passports belonged to poor families and wanted to go to abroad for earning their livelihood.
