Aadhaar Fraud: Ration Traders in Gujarat Held For Irregularities Using 'Stolen Biometric Data'

Surat, Feb 4: Two fair price ration shop owners in Surat were held by police for committing fraudery using "stolen" Aadhaar data. The accused allegedly bought a software for Rs 15,000 which contained a list of Aadhaar numbers, ration card numbers and thumb impressions.

The accused were identified by police as Babulal Chhogaji Boriwal, 53, and Sampat Lal Rodilal Shah, 61. The duo have been charged under IPC sections 406, 409 (criminal breach of trust), 467, 468, 471 (forgery), along with the relevant sections of IT Act and Essential Commodities Act.

An investigation is underway to hunt the software developer and seller.

The action against the traders was taken after eight complaints were registered with different police stations in the city by officials of the Revenue Collectorate.

When the probe was underway, the police said, it was found beneficiaries who did not availed any sort of ration were named in the registries of accused fair price shop owners.

One among them,  Kishore Thakkar, a resident of Udhana in Surat, was shown in the accused's registry as a regular beneficiary of the Annapurna Yojana between April and November 2017. However, probe revealed that Thakkar had not bought any subsidised grain during that period.

"The accused were using a software that contained ration card numbers, Aadhaar card numbers and biometric thumb impressions of PDS beneficiaries. They used the details to create fake records of food grain sale. assistant commissioner of police, crime detection department, R Sarvaiya told TOI. The case would become more clear after the police unearths who developed the software and sold it to the accused traders, he added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 04, 2018 09:49 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).