Forged PwD certificate racket busted; nine held

New Delhi: A major interstate racket involving alleged forging of disability certificates to facilitate admissions under the PwD category has been busted by the Delhi Police, with nine people apprehended and 27 certificates recovered, an officer said on Thursday.

Police unearthed the network after receiving information about a man allegedly facilitating admissions to JBT, B.Tech and other undergraduate courses by arranging forged Persons with Disabilities (PwD) certificates for money, she said.

“The investigation began with the apprehension of Lalit Kumar alias Aditya (36), a resident of Aligarh, currently residing in Faridabad, on August 31. Sixteen PwD certificates issued by government hospitals in Badaun, Bareilly and Siddharth Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, pertaining to hearing impairment, locomotor disability and low vision, were recovered from him, along with three mobile phones and a laptop,” the officer said.

A case was registered at the Maurice Nagar police station. During interrogation, Lalit allegedly disclosed that he worked with education consultants, including Roshan Kumar of Noida, to collect students’ personal details and arrange forged certificates. Their Aadhaar addresses were allegedly manipulated using AI tools to show addresses in districts including Siddharth Nagar, Badaun, Bareilly and Gorakhpur before applications were uploaded on the Unique Disability ID (UDID) portal. The certificates were allegedly arranged through associates for Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 each, police said. Roshan, who runs a consultancy in Sector 18, Noida, was apprehended on September 1.

He allegedly collected students’ Aadhaar details, photographs, signatures and OTPs and shared them with Lalit for processing applications on the UDID portal. Kuldeep (28), a contractual computer operator working with the Divyang office at the CMO in Bareilly, was arrested on September 3. Police seized his mobile phone and a desktop allegedly used to prepare forged medical reports, which were subsequently uploaded on the portal.

“Sher Singh Solanki (40) and Dr Laxmi Kant Saxena (60) -- a member of the Bareilly disability board -- were also apprehended.

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