20-year-old leads Thane police to man issuing fake vaccine certificates

This picture has been used for representational purpose

With the help of a 20-year-old Rabodi resident, the Anti-Extortion Cell of the Thane crime branch arrested a person for issuing fake certificates to unvaccinated people. According to the officials, the accused, identified as Saurabh Singh was previously working at a primary health centre in Palghar as a data entry operator and was familiar with the process of generating certificates using the login ID and password.

Initial probe has revealed that the accused had created 20 such certificates, and earned Rs 15,000 until now. Faizur Rehman Fazlur Sheikh, a resident of Rabodi, Thane, learnt about a certain Saurabh Singh in Nalasopara offering fake vaccine certificates. "When I received this information, I immediately informed the Anti-Extortion Cell of the Thane police. With their help, I contacted Singh," said Sheikh.

When Sheikh contacted Singh, he was asked to pay Rs 700 to get the certificate. He transferred the money and within a few minutes, he received a certificate on his mobile phone that contained all the necessary details. The certificate mentioned the name, the doses that were administered at Dhaniv Urban Primary Health Centre, Palghar and that certificate was issued by the Ministry of health and family welfare, Government of India. The Anti-Extortion Cell swung into action and traced Singh to Nalasopara East.