Hyderabad: In a major crackdown, the Special Operations Team (SOT) in the LB Nagar region coordinated with the Saroor Nagar police to destroy an extensive forged document racket in Hyderabad and adjacent areas. On reliable information, police raided Saathwik business near the municipal office of Saroor Nagar and discovered a delicate fake network that had been in operation for several years. During the operation, six people were arrested, while seven others absconded.
The survey shows that Saathwik Enterprises owner Thota Venkata Bhanu Prakash and his wife Thota Sagarika have been running fake files for nearly nine years. Originally legal notarization and document services gradually developed into large criminal enterprises. Initially, they were preparing legal documents using real non-judicial stamp documents. But over time, Bhanu Prakash began buying outdated, unused stamp documents from known colleagues, including stamp suppliers and court document authors.
They used chemicals like Rin Ala and Thinner to eliminate the original content on stamp paper and re-engineered it to create fake sales deeds, birth and caste certificates, and other official documents. Forged rubber stamps and fake signatures by government officials, advocates and medical professionals are used to make the forged documents authentic. The documents are sold to clients, including robbers and those who wish for fraudulent loans or benefits, with a sum of between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000.
The arrested included the sale of document writing, rubber stamp manufacturing and forged documents. A defendant, one of the document writers of the city’s civil court, has a history of similar crimes, has been booked in several forgery cases at different police stations in Hyderabad. Another main defendant of Addaguduru Chandrashekar, known person in the stamp paper transaction, provided outdated legal stationery to the main defendant. His son was also arrested as a document supplier.
Further investigation revealed the involvement of several outsourcing employees from the municipal offices of Narsingi, Kamareddy and Bandlaguda Jagir. These individuals issue formal birth certificates through the MEE SEVA Center without the necessary supporting documents. The gang, in partnership with defendants Jaleel and Mallesh Goud, has managed to issue nearly 181 fake birth certificates over the past year and a half.
Police seized a large amount of evidence, including 571 non-judicial and forged stamp documents, 48 ​​fake birth certificates, 11 fake certificates, 5 fake caste certificates, two computer systems, and forged rubber stamps belonging to various government officials and notaries.
The case has been registered in the relevant section of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
