NEW DELHI: When political parties were haranguing about reservations in jobs and educational institutions during the Lok Sabha polls, a class of racketeers was lining their pockets in the national capital over fake certificates. The police said on Friday that a tehsildar (executive magistrate) and three others have been arrested for issuing reserved caste certificates to the members of non-reserved categories.
The four suspects are Sourabh Gupta, who once worked as a vegetable vendor, Chetan Yadav, who worked at a private helpline service provider in the tehsildar office, Delhi Cantt, Waris Ali, the driver of the executive magistrate, and magistrate Narender Pal Singh.
They allegedly issued 111 caste certificates of SC, ST and OBC for various price tags in six months, police said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Rakesh Paweriya told this newspaper that earlier this year, the police received information about such a racket. “A crime branch policeman sent a decoy applicant for getting an OBC Certificate,” said the police.
“He was issued an OBC certificate and was charged Rs 3,500. It was uploaded on the Delhi government’s revenue department website,” said the DCP.
On May 9, Saurabh Gupta was nabbed from Sangam Vihar area. “Snapshots and PDF files of many documents were found in his mobile phone data,” said the DCP. Co-accused Chetan Yadav, Waris Ali and the executive magistrate were also arrested on May 14, May 22 and May 27.
Saurabh shared details of an applicant and other papers with Chetan and also transferred money. Yadav forwarded and shared details of the applicant and application numbers to Waris Ali, who ‘approved’ the case using a digital signature of the executive magistrate.