Jammu and Kashmir citizens were given fake driver’s licences with the addresses of Indian security forces battalions, but the ring was uncovered by the Ahmedabad City Crime Branch on June 17.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, followed up on information provided by the Military Intelligence Ahmedabad, Pune Branch and learned that agents working inside the Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar RTOs had ties to people in Jammu and Kashmir. It was stated that these agents were submitting forgeries to the RTO office in order to get driving licences.
Inspector M.S. Trivedi of the crime section of the police initiated a separate inquiry after learning about this. Santosh Singh Madhavsingh Chauhan and Dhaval Vasantakumar Rawat are being prosecuted for their roles in this incident.
In 2015, Chauhan was employed in Gandhinagar as an RTO agent. Here he began producing fake driver’s licences for members of the Indian government’s security forces. Friends and family in Jammu and Kashmir who weren’t affiliated with the Indian government’s security agencies would provide him with the information he needed to prove his identity. To get driving licences, the stolen information was utilised to forge official-looking documents, which were then submitted to the RTO website.
After two years of working with Chauhan, Rawat was also suspected of involvement in the fraud. Knowing Chauhan’s methods, he began using them himself, working in tandem with a contact in Jammu & Kashmir. He forged papers online, submitted them to the RTO, and was issued licences without the standard checks being performed.
The two have been accused of forging over a thousand licences at a cost of Rs 6000–8000 each. Digital wallets like Google Pay would be welcomed. As the investigation progresses, both suspects are now being held in jail.
Dhaval Vasantkumar Rawat worked closely with Santosh Singh Chauhan for two years, during which time he learned every detail of Chauhan’s lucrative fake driving licence scam. Under the command of Ayan Umar, a co-conspirator located in Kashmir, Rawat was engaged in distributing these fake licences, typically sending them to the addresses of security force battalions.
Umar will provide Rawat the applicant’s image and Aadhaar number for the driver’s licence. Rawat would next use his laptop to generate many official papers, such as a service certificate, defence motor driving licence book, confirmation letter, and Army canteen card.
