Pune Military Intelligence Helps Unravel Massive Fake Driving License Racket In Ahmedabad And Gandhinagar

Ahmedabad, 17th June 2023: In a major breakthrough, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad Police’s Crime Branch, received crucial information from the Southern Command Military Intelligence (MI) in Pune, uncovering a network of fraudulent activities involving agents from the Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar Regional Transport Offices (RTOs). The agents had been acquiring personal details of residents in Jammu and Kashmir and forging documents to produce bogus driving licenses at the RTO offices.

Prompted by this intelligence, Police Inspector MS Trivedi of the Crime Branch and his team conducted a thorough investigation, leading to the arrest of two individuals on 16th June 2023.

The accused have been identified as Santosh Singh Madhavsingh Chauhan, residing at Sector-4 C Gandhinagar, and Dhaval Vasantkumar Rawat, residing in Chandkheda near Shiv Shaktinagar Trends Mall, Ahmedabad. Santosh Singh Chauhan, a former Indian Navy Hospital employee, had been working as an agent in the Gandhinagar RTO since 2015. Exploiting his position, he began producing driving licenses for soldiers of various Indian security force battalions. He collaborated with individuals in Jammu and Kashmir, including Ashfaq, Nazir, Wasim, and others, who were not affiliated with any Indian security forces but sought driving licenses with the addresses of security force personnel.

According to officials, Santosh Singh Chauhan, leveraging his knowledge of the required documents and procedures, obtained Aadhaar cards and photographs of the applicants, along with service certificates, defense motor driving license books, and confirmation letters. He even acquired an online stamp-making machine to produce security force stamps as part of the forged documents. These falsified documents were then digitally signed by Santosh Singh Chauhan, who uploaded them on the RTO’s website to obtain driving licenses. By circumventing the need for personal verification and live photo capturing, the accused facilitated the issuance of licenses upon payment of a fee.

Dhaval Vasantkumar Rawat, who had been working closely with Santosh Singh Chauhan, was well aware of the illegal practices and actively participated in the production of false driving licenses. Ayan Umar, an accomplice of Dhaval Rawat, coordinated the delivery of the licenses to the security force battalions, as directed by the clients. Ayan Umar provided the Aadhaar cards and photographs of the individuals, and Dhaval Rawat generated the necessary documents, including service certificates, defense motor driving license books, confirmation letters, and army canteen cards. These documents were digitally signed, printed, and uploaded on the RTO’s website to secure the driving licenses.

The accused duo has successfully produced over a thousand counterfeit driving licenses to date, charging their clients a hefty sum ranging from Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 8,000 per license. The payments were primarily received through digital platforms such as Google Pay and PhonePe. The investigation has revealed that the accused have amassed more than fifty lakh rupees through this fraudulent operation.

During the arrest, several items related to the illegal activities were confiscated. These included 284 driving licenses, 97 motor driving license books, 9 rubber stamps, 37 no-objection certificates, 9 service certificates, 5 confirmation letters, 3 laptops, 3 color photocopies of documents, 4 mobile phones, 27 speed post stickers, and 1 digital signature pen.