Bengal STF arrests two in connection with making fake Aadhaar cards

Kolkata, July 31 Sleuths of the special task force (STF) of West Bengal Police had busted an Aadhaar card fraud ring operating through a legitimate Aadhaar centre and arrested two persons in connection with issuing fake Aadhaar cards, the police said on Thursday.

Although the arrests were made on Wednesday night, the information had been shared by the state police on Thursday afternoon. The arrests were made following a raid in Birbhum district. The arrested persons have been identified as Sheikh Miraj Hossain and Abdul Quddus.

According to state police sources, the ring of creating Aadhaar cards was going on from a place very close to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata through a laptop of the Aadhaar centre in Birbhum.

At first, the police were clueless about the unique manner in which this fraud was being done.

A state police insider said that the fraudsters were first masking the MAC-ID of the laptop specified for the Aadhaar centre.

“Then they were changing the location through the GPS receiver. That happened while the Aadhaar-related work was being done, sitting at a place near the Kolkata airport. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) authorities were seeing that the work was being done in Birbhum district. In this case, the fingerprint of the data entry operator was also being manipulated from another location," he added.

According to sources, the MAC-ID of the laptop of the Aadhaar centre at Birbhum was being made from a place near the airport. Police sources fear that many Bangladeshis who have entered the country illegally might have made issued Indian Aadhaar cards through this fraud.

"We have seized the laptops to find out how many Aadhaar cards the ring leaders have made. Apart from Birbhum, a resident of Birati in North 24 Parganas district and a resident of Uttar Pradesh are involved in this. We have initiated a search for them," said the police source.

Usually, the UIDAI authorities identify a laptop and a MAC-ID with every Aadhaar centre. Without that laptop, no Aadhaar work could be done. Along with that, the exact location of that Aadhaar centre and the fingerprint of a data entry operator for Aadhaar are also registered.

According to the rules, the data entry operator could not do any Aadhaar creation work without a specific laptop at that specific location.

Otherwise, the person cannot access Aadhaar authority's website, and the server will not work either.

Despite such strict measures and rules, the fraudsters were able to create Aadhaar cards from another location through the laptop of the Aadhaar centre.

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