One man and two women were arrested for submitting fake documents to open bank accounts. The incident came to light when a bank clerk noticed that the documents were fake and reported them to the police.
The main accused, Sayyed Shah Alam, 45, had first gone to the bank on September 14 to submit his documents along with an application to open a savings bank account in the Sakinaka branch of Canara Bank.
The bank clerk, Ulhas Jadhav, remembered that the same person had come to open an account a month ago as well. Jadhav screened the documents Alam gave, and the picture on the Aadhar card did not match him. Then, he checked Alam’s name and other details in the bank’s system and found that the number on the Aadhar card matched another closed account from the Delhi branch.
Alam had also brought two women, Rumana Sheikh, 36, and Tabassum Sheikh, 36, to open their savings accounts. One of their Aadhar cards had a picture of a woman wearing a bindi and with vermilion in her hair parting. Jadhav asked her if she was a Hindu before, and she could not give a proper answer. On further pressing, she confessed that it was not her in the picture.
During the interrogation, it came to light that Alam had told Rumana and Tabassum that he would help them open bank accounts despite not having any identification documents.
He had first taken them to their local branch in Mumbra where the officials said the process would take more than eight days. Therefore, he brought them to the Sakinaka branch as this branch would complete the process in three working days.
The police officer said that several fake Aadhar cards had been retrieved from Alam.
The accused have been booked under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as real), and 511 (attempt to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code. While Alam is remanded in police custody, the two women have been let off on a warning.