According to the police, on January 4, they received information that forged documents were being submitted before the Cantonment Court for bail of an accused Bachhan Singh Bhond, who was arrested in a criminal offence registered at Kondhwa police station.
Pune city police arrested 11 persons including two lawyers in connection with a racket of producing forged documents and fake sureties in various courts to secure bail for accused persons in serious offences.
According to the police, on January 4, they received information that forged documents were being submitted before the Cantonment Court for bail of an accused Bachhan Singh Bhond, who was arrested in a criminal offence registered at Kondhwa police station.
A police team led by police sub inspector Dhanaji Tone then laid a trap and nabbed a suspect, Santoshkumar Shankar Telang (32), a resident of Shewalwadi near Hadapsar at the court premises. Police nabbed five others identified as Jitendra Shivram Karangutkar (39) of Thane, Subhashan Shankar Totre (40) of Ambegaon and Dnyaneshwar Shinde (55) of Khed taluka in Pune district, Sanjay Manohar Padwal (42) and Sujit Sakpal (36) of Mulund in Mumbai. A key accused, Farhan alias Bablu Shaikh, managed to escape from the court, police said.
Probe revealed the suspects allegedly appeared before the court as witnesses with fake names and submitted forged Ration cards, Aadhaar cards, 7/12 extract documents for the bail of an undertrial, Bhond, lodged in Yerwada jail.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged at Wanavdi police station against the accused persons under sections 319 (2), 318 (4), 338, 336 (3), 340 (2), 3 (5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
During investigation, police arrested Darshan Ashok Shah (45) of Pune Camp on January 7 for allegedly providing fake rubber stamps to the wanted Farhan Shaikh. On January 9, police arrested Piraji alias Chandrakant Shinde (60) of Moshi and Gopal Kangne (35) of Pimpri for allegedly providing copies of bogus ration cards to the accused producing fake sureties in the courts.
During investigation, police recovered 95 suspicious ration cards, 11 Aadhaar cards and various other documents from the accused persons. A press release issued on Monday mentioned that the statement of accused Telang was recorded before the court, in which he named Farhan Shaikh and three lawyers – Aslam Sayyad, Yogesh Jadhav and Narendra Jadhav, with whom he allegedly conspired to produce fake surety before the court to get bail for accused persons in different crimes for financial gains.
Accordingly, police arrested advocates Aslam Sayyad (45) and Yogesh Jadhav, both residents of Hadapsar, on Sunday.
During a press conference, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 5) Rajkumar Shinde said so far the probe revealed that the racketeers allegedly played a role in getting bail for 32 accused persons in 24 serious crimes by producing fake surety in different courts in Pune city, Pune district and Pimpri Chinchwad. “These crimes include offences such as attempted murder and Arms Act cases. Appropriate legal action would be taken against these accused released on bail due to fake surety. Some of the courts have already initiated action. Further investigation is on.
We are also probing the role of court staff in the racket, ” said Shinde.
Police said more arrests are likely in this case. Police are probing into the financial transactions of the accused operating the fake surety racket. Police said the masterminds allegedly hired people by offering them up to Rs 2000 each, along with travel and food expenses, to appear before the court as fake witnesses and produce forged documents required as surety for fulfilling bail conditions. Also, police suspect up to Rs 4000 per fake document was paid to the accused allegedly involved in forgery.
