A gang that exploited a few loopholes in the vehicle registration certificate issuing process and forged RCs apart from cheating the Regional Transport Authority was busted here on Tuesday.
The Cyberabad Police Special Operation Team arrested seven persons, from whom 1,200 fake RCs, 29 stamps, printers and other material were seized.
The arrested persons were Ch.Sathish (32) from Shamshabad, Shaik Jhangir Basha (50), RTA agent from Yousufguda, K.Chandrashekar (44), a vehicle broker from Alwal, M.Ganesh (29) from Rajendranagar, Syed Hussain (35), a RTA agent from Kishan Bagh, Ch.Ramesh (36), a vehicle agent from Miyapur and Sampath from Bhadradri-Kothagudem district.
According to the police, RCs were not usually available of vehicles that were seized from people who defaulted on loan payments. Finance firms auctioned such vehicles, with a No Objection Certificate given to the third party. The third party, before selling the vehicles to other persons, would approach the RTA office for reissue of
fresh RCs by submitting the original RC, which was were the gang came in.
According to Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra, the gang forged RCs, which were sold to the third party agents, who submitted these to the RTA, claiming them to be original. They thus got fresh RCs issued by submitting fake documents, after which the vehicles were sold.
The gang also managed to obtain original RCs from RTA offices, allegedly through a nexus with some officials, which Hussain and Sampath sold to Shaik Jahangir Basha for Rs.200 each. He sold those at Rs.300 each to Sathish, who forged fake RCs with help from Ganesh and Chandrashekar.
“They erased data on the card using nail polish remover and printed new data. Sathish then sold each forged RC at Rs.700 to Rs.900 to Chandrashekar, which were submitted as original RCs at the RTA again to get fresh ones issued,” the Commissioner said.
The gang was involved in two cases, one each in RGIA and Miyapur police stations.