The Cuffe Parade police have arrested a crafty forger involved in preparing fake documents and stamps of government and private institutions. Several forged documents, including a birth certificate, graduation degree, Aadhaar card and ration card, have been recovered from the accused.
The case came to light after a woman, identified as Hasina Safikul Khatoon, applied for character verification at the Cuffe Parade police station. During verification, when police scanned the QR code on the birth certificate submitted by her, the message “This site can’t be reached” appeared, raising suspicion. Following this, the police carried out a detailed scrutiny of her other documents.
The investigation revealed multiple discrepancies. The font used on the Aadhaar card was different from that of a genuine Aadhaar document. On the ration card, the name and address of the head of the family had been altered in a different handwriting using black ink. In the Class 12 board certificate issued by the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, the woman’s current photograph, the same as on her Aadhaar card, was found pasted. Moreover, scanning the QR code on the certificate showed the result “Your search did not match any documents”.
When asked to produce the original documents, Hasina Khatoon failed to do so. During questioning, she disclosed that all the documents had been prepared at a cyber café named ‘Sah Communication’ located at Ganeshmurti Nagar in Cuffe Parade.
Acting on this information, the cyber team of the Cuffe Parade police conducted a raid at the said cyber café and detained the operator, Sujitkumar Shyam Thakur (21). During the search, police found computers loaded with various editing tools and software being used to create forged documents.
Further investigation revealed that the accused had prepared similar fake documents and stamps for at least seven other individuals. The hard drive of the accused’s computer has been seized and sent for forensic examination.
A case has been registered at the Cuffe Parade police station under Crime Register No. 250/2025 against Sujitkumar Thakur under Sections 336, 336(2), 336(3), 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 66, 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act. The accused has been arrested and remanded to police custody, and further investigation is underway.