Two arrested for forging documents for e-passes

The Navi Mumbai crime branch on Friday arrested two men who forged documents to apply for e-passes during the lockdown. The accused made money by charging the applicants between ₹1,000 and ₹1,500 for their illegal services.

The accused duo, identified as Navnath Dabde, 37, and Ishwar Shinde, 30, had been applying for passes since the start of the Covid-19 lockdown in March. In the last four months, they applied for around 40 e-passes, the police suspect.

Dabde, a driver, was rendered jobless during the lockdown. He decided to partner with Shinde, a real estate agent to commit the forgeries. The duo started getting clients through word of mouth after they successfully tricked the system early in April.

Prior to the relaxation of lockdown rules, passes of those residing outside Navi Mumbai were not approved by the city police as local address proof was essential.

“The duo used to forge the address on the Aadhaar card of applicants from outside Navi Mumbai. Using a made-up reason, they would apply for the pass and get it approved,” said NB Kolhatkar, senior inspector, central unit.

After police received a tip-off, they set up a sting operation with a dummy customer and contacted the accused.

The men were called to meet in Belapur, near the police commissioner’s office on Friday, where they were taken into custody after they told the dummy customer how they would get the e-pass approval.

So far, police have found 15 persons who paid the men for the passes. An investigation is on to find out how many other passes were issued using fake documents. Officers said that not all the passes applied for by the duo were approved.

Dabde and Shinde do not have a prior criminal history. They have been remanded in police custody till Monday.