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Fake Passbook Gang Busted
Highlights
While denial of renewing a crop loan led to a young farmer taking the extreme step of suicide in front of a bank at Uravakonda recently, thousands of imposters in the district are availing themselves of hassle-free benefits using fake passbooks. Some instances of the bank staff colluding with the fraudsters have been reported earlier.
While denial of renewing a crop loan led to a young farmer taking the extreme step of suicide in front of a bank at Uravakonda recently, thousands of imposters in the district are availing themselves of hassle-free benefits using fake passbooks. Some instances of the bank staff colluding with the fraudsters have been reported earlier.
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The district police on Sunday busted a gang which created and circulated fake passbooks across the district. They nabbed a 12-member gang and seized 17,100 fake passbooks, a vehicle, Rs 1 lakh, computers, printers, a laptop, stamps and a hunting knife here.
According to Superintendent of Police Rajasekhara Babu, the gang, operating from Anantapur, was involved in several crimes. He said the gang members had plundered crores of rupees in the form of subsidy given by government. Colluding with the Revenue officials, they grabbed lands of government and ex-servicemen and sold them, the SP stated. The gang allegedly availed of crop loans and secured groundnut seed, drip irrigation equipment under subsidy.
Following a tip-off, a special team under the supervision of Dharmavaram Rural CI Muralikrishna nabbed the gang. The police suspect collusion of several politicians, three VROs and a retired VRO with the gang. The SP said action would be taken against those who have had a hand in the fraud. Deputy Chief Minister KE Krishnamurthy hailed the Anantapur police for their timely action against the fake passbook gang, which had been operating for the last 15 years.
He directed the Collector and the SP to take strong action in such frauds. He said the government has introduced e-passbooks to curb such irregularities, while advising farmers not to trust if anyone offered manual passbooks.
In a related development, the rise in farmers’ suicides in the district could be attributed to famine-like conditions and non-availability of input subsidies and crop loans. If such irregularities are not curbed farmers are bound to face severe hardships.
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