In a significant development in the massive fake birth and death registrations scam that has shaken the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, police have made a second arrest. The arrest follows the uncovering of a sophisticated racket involving the hacking of the government's Civil Registration System (CRS) to generate thousands of fraudulent documents.
The Unfolding of a Bizarre Scam
The scandal first came to light in Shendursani village, located in Arni taluka. This village, with a modest population of around 1,400, suddenly showed an impossible spike in official records. Astonishingly, 27,397 births and seven deaths were registered in the system within just three months—between September and November of last year. This glaring anomaly triggered an immediate investigation.
Soon after, a similar pattern emerged in Bhavani Rampur Tanda in Umarkhed taluka. This village, home to approximately 400 farmers and agricultural labourers, had not registered a single birth for the past 35 years. Yet, investigators found that a staggering 6,206 births had been mysteriously entered into the official database recently.
How the Fraud Was Engineered
Police investigations revealed that the scam was executed by hacking the user ID of the gram panchayat to gain unauthorized access to the state's Civil Registration System. Once inside, the perpetrators could create and validate fake birth and death records at an industrial scale.
The first breakthrough came with technical and intelligence inputs, leading to the arrest of a youth identified as Adarshkumar Dubey from Bihar on December 30. His interrogation provided crucial leads, prompting a police team to travel to Pune for further investigation.
The Second Arrest and Modus Operandi
Following the trail from Pune, the investigation led the Yavatmal police to Baramati, where they arrested Abhijit Gonu More on Saturday. According to police sources, Abhijit played a specialized role in the network. He was supplying limited but crucial data required to generate the fake birth certificates. For this service, he allegedly charged between Rs 800 and Rs 1,000 per certificate per person.
The scale of the fraud has prompted the state government to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter thoroughly. The investigation is currently being led by Sub-Divisional Police Officer Dinesh Baisane and is ongoing to uncover the full extent of the network and its potential motives, which could include identity fraud, illegal immigration, or claiming government benefits.
