Hyderabad: The Rachakonda police arrested six individuals in connection with a large-scale fake document racket, while seven others are still at large.
During the raid, officials seized 571 non-judicial and forged stamp papers of various denominations, 48 fake birth certificates, 11 fake income certificates, five fake caste certificates, two computer systems, and several rubber stamps.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Thota Venkata Bhanu Prakash, 55, owner of a notary business, and his wife Thota Saganka, 38, a typist. Addaguduru Chandrashekar, 64, a businessman from Bommalagudi, allegedly involved in stamp sales, and his son Addaguduru Anil, 35, a document vendor, have also been taken into custody. Md Jaleel, 33, accused of arranging fake birth certificates, and Jalla Kishore Kumar, 44, a boutique businessman from Saroor Nagar, who allegedly sought a fake sale deed.
According to reports, Thota Venkata Bhanu Prakash and his wife Thota Sagarika had been running a seemingly legitimate documentation service, Saathwik Enterprises, for the past nine years. What began as lawful work involving affidavits and rental agreements gradually evolved into a full-fledged forgery operation. The duo allegedly sourced outdated and unused non-judicial stamp papers from known vendors and erased their contents using chemicals like Rin Ala and thinner.
With the help of forged rubber stamps and signatures of advocates, notaries, doctors, and government officials, the accused created hundreds of counterfeit documents, including fake sale deeds, birth, caste, and income certificates. These were sold for amounts ranging between Rs 5,000 and Rs 20,000, mostly to land grabbers and individuals seeking fraudulent loans or welfare benefits.
The racket also involved staff from multiple municipal offices across Telangana. Police said that outsourcing employees from Narsingi, Kamareddy, and Bandlaguda Jagir municipal offices helped generate at least 181 fake birth certificates through Mee Seva centres, bypassing official verification requirements. These certificates were issued without supporting documents such as hospital records or Aadhaar cards.
Police have registered a case under 318(4), 338, 336(3), 340(2), 61(2) read with 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and further investigation is ongoing to trace the remaining suspects and determine the scale of the fraudulent network.
