Mumbai Police arrest suspect in RTO permit scam

Om Sai Ganesh Auto Deal shop on Shraddhanand Road in Vile Parle East. Pic/Sameer Markande

The Vile Parle police arrested a 40-year-old man involved in an RTO permit scam racket. Police said the accused was fabricating fake documents, altering the name and address on the light bill and bank passbook, and using them to manipulate Aadhaar cards to obtain auto-rickshaw permits. Cops suspect that some RTO officials are colluding with the accused. Police seized around 61 Aadhaar cards in which the accused allegedly altered the names and addresses.

mid-day reported a story of a victim, Ramesh Shrikari Sahu, 43, whose auto-rickshaw was seized by the Andheri RTO three years ago due to a goof-up by unknown RTO officials. Sahu's documents were also duplicated, and a duplicate permit was issued from the Andheri RTO using the same modus operandi.

The arrested accused is Ganesh Kumar Shah, alias Khiru Shah, 38, who operates this auto permit scam racket at Om Sai Ganesh Auto Deal shop on Shraddhanand Road in Vile Parle East.

Modus operandi

In the modus operandi, accused Shah runs an auto parts shop where many people visit daily to purchase parts for their autos. In the shop, he approaches people to obtain new permits by creating fraudulent documents and charging exorbitant fees to obtain an auto-rickshaw permit. The accused Shah was using the WPS application on his laptop. With the help of this software, the accused used to edit passbooks, Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, and electricity bills. He would edit the address and name, and later upload these documents to the UIDAI portal.

A police officer said, "Later, after uploading the documents with the changed address to UIDAI, the accused managed to get approval for changes in the Aadhaar Card document. Later, with the changed Aadhaar card and passbook, he would submit it to the RTO office to obtain the permit."

Sahu's case

In Sahu's case, the Amboli police also arrested two accused, including an agent Munna. The cops also found that the accused agent Munna created fake documents for another accused and created an Aadhaar card with the name of Ramesh Ganesh Sahu and applied for a permit. The accused used Sahu's address and passbook to obtain the auto-rickshaw permit. Later, an unknown RTO officer from the Andheri RTO also issued the permit to the accused. However, when this scam came to light, Sahu's auto was seized by the RTO even though he was not at fault. However, RTO officials told mid-day that they don't have any records in their system about which RTO officer at Andheri RTO issued the permit to the accused.

Vile Parle case

In the Vile Parle case, Constable PSI Omase, attached to the Vile Parle police station, received a tip-off that the accused Shah was running an RTO permit scam at his shop. PSI Omase informed API Baswaraj Tamshette and Constable Amrut Rathod, and they reached the accused Shah's shop on Thursday evening.
A police officer said, "On Thursday at around 7.22 pm, a team reached the accused Shah's shop and posed as customers. The accused revealed how he was changing addresses and names on Aadhaar cards to obtain permits."

61
No. of Aadhar cards seized