Hyderabad: Bangladesh state, Rashel Shaik alias Mohammed Rashel was arrested by Pocharam Police last month for living in India illegally and possessing multiple forged Indian identity documents. Police seized several fake documents and cell phones from his property, including Aadhaar, voter ID and PAN card.
Last November, Hyderabad police discovered a racket operating from Secunderabad that produced fake voters and Aadhaar cards. The gang costs only Rs 1,500 per voter ID card and has also created an Aadhaar card, a birth certificate, a PAN card and even a passport. Gazette officers' forged signatures and rubber drawings are used to make the document credibility.
Since 2015, the network is believed to have produced more than 15,000 fake voter IDs and about 10,000 Aadhaar cards. Six people were arrested, including government employees who handled fraudulent Aadhaar applications.
These cases underscore the scale and durability of complex forged rackets operating in Hyderabad, often in the case of internal collusion and abuse of official seals and certificates. Despite the crackdown, such networks are still thriving in cities due to systemic gaps and weak enforcement.
In a related and disturbing case, the official inaction on the complainant’s complaint has raised further concerns. The voter ID, which was allegedly forged in the name of Sridhar Reddy Goguri, was created and operated at Alwal's Internet Center using a tampered date of birth. The evidence submitted by the whistleblower shows that despite a passport confirming the birth year of 1977, the defendant changed his birth year from 1977 to 1981.
In response to the Election Registration Officer (ERO) investigation, the district passport officer issued a letter confirming that the passport holder’s date of birth was March 27, 1977, and noting that he had made several foreign visits.
However, despite this evidence, the deputy commissioner of Malkajgiri Circle, who also serves as ERO, issued only three notices to the defendant. No steps were taken to cancel the forged ID card or investigate the larger racket behind it. It is understood that the defendant runs an Internet cafe and uses his own tampered documents to ensure that customers are easily able to obtain fake IDs, thereby attracting more customers into illegal operations.
Deccan Chronicle has all supporting documents, including letters between the passport officer and the ERO, three official notices, and the original complaint filed by the whistleblower. The case further reinforces Hyderabad’s infamous as a hub for forging identity documents, thus revealing deep-rooted flaws in the verification and law enforcement system.
