In a major crackdown, the Dindoshi Police have exposed a racket involved in preparing fake ration cards by luring people with promises of benefits under government schemes such as the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Jan Arogya Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana.
The accused allegedly cheated both the government and citizens by generating forged ration cards to help in availing benefits meant for economically weaker sections.
The Anti-Terrorism Cell (ATC) team of Dindoshi Police Station arrested seven persons in connection with the case and seized 343 bogus ration cards along with several forged documents. The arrested accused were working as PROs in private hospitals.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
The arrested accused have been identified as Sujal Satyanarayan Dayal (21), Rakesh Bhagat Singh, Dineshkumar Kesarwani, Edward alias Sonu D’Souza, Manishankar Sharma, Vipin Pandey and Viru Gupta.
Police said that Sujal Dayal’s father had been involved in preparing fake ration cards for the past 10 years. After his father’s death in May 2025, Dayal allegedly took over and continued operating the racket.
According to police, on February 7, 2026, during patrolling on Rani Sati Marg in Malad East, Sujal Dayal was detained. Fake slum photo pass receipts, MMRDA allotment letters and blank ration cards were recovered from his possession.
Subsequent searches led to the seizure of 343 fake ration cards, a laptop, printer, printing materials and nine mobile phones from his residence.
Police said the accused charged between ₹2,000 and ₹5,000 per fake ration card, depending on the work involved.
During investigation, it was revealed that the accused used CorelDRAW software to design and print fake ration cards.
Police further found that an employee from the rationing office, identified as Singh, was supplying old ration card covers to the accused after tearing them from outdated cards. His official duty was to destroy old documents by burning them, but instead he allegedly sold the covers for ₹100 each to facilitate the racket.
Further investigation is underway.