Fake bail racket busted in city, 4 arrested

Times News Network
Ludhiana: The police here on Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang of fraudsters with the arrest of four of its members, who used to arrange bails for under-trials/ prisoners on forged documents. They said the accused arranged over 200 such bails in the past one-and-half years.
According to the cops, the accused—kingpin of the gang Harpal Singh alias Manoj Kumar, 32, of Phullanwal village; Rahul Kumar, 39, of Anand Vihar, Phullanwal; Navdeep Singh, 34 of Guru Nanak Pura, Civil Lines; and Harwinder Singh, 32, of Talwandi Noawad village—would access the land documents of people online and using the details therein, they would forge documents and arrange bails. They used to charge Rs 10,000 for each bail.
The Division Number 5 police, who busted the gang, also recovered 50 forged Aadhaar cards and 20 original land documents from the possession of the accused.
Ludhiana commissioner of police Rakesh Agrawal said the gang was operating in various courts and would reach out to lawyers offering to give surety of bail for their clients for a fee. Suspicion arose after the police observed that there was a rise in the number of accused jumping bail. Thereafter, the police started a probe.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP)-III Sameer Verma said Harpal alias Manoj is the kingpin of the gang, who used to forge all the documents through some mobile application and then, with the help of other gang members, used to arrange bails for the seekers.
Talking about their modus operandi, ADCP Verma shared, “The accused used to get online access to the land documents and look for land without any loan against it. The accused would then forge the Aadhaar card of the land owner by pasting their own pictures on it. Using that, they would procure the land documents from the revenue office after paying the requisite fee and then arrange bails on the basis of forged documents. The accused used to charge about Rs 10,000 for each bail.”
The officer said, “Since the information of land documents is not made public on the online platforms, we are also suspecting the involvement of some employee of the revenue department. In the past one-and-half years, the gang has forged bail papers for over 200 people. We are also approaching the sessions judge’s court to identify who all have availed the services of the bail racket. Action will be taken against them also.”
According to police, accused Harpal was earlier arrested by the Division Number 5 police in a similar case in February 2019. However, later he came out on bail and again took to his old ways.