Bengaluru: The City Crime Branch (CCB) police have busted a nine-member gang, including an advocate, who was running a racket of submitting fake surety papers for obtaining bail in more than 500 cases.
The police have identified the arrested persons as Prasanna Kumar (47), an advocate from Bikasipura near Banashankari, Sudharani (26) from Agrahara Layout, Kumar (22) from Malavalli, Shivaraj (38) from Kengeri, Srinivas (45) from Kengeri Satellite Town, Anjana Reddy (41) from Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh, Kumar (28) from KR Nagar, Venkatesh (51) from Nagarabhavi, Harinatha Reddy (27) from Yelahanka in Bengaluru.
“The arrested persons used to forge the documents of deceased persons and their friends and submit those papers as surety to accused persons in robbery and theft cases as surety for obtaining bail,’’ Commissioner of Police Praveen Sood said.
The Commissioner of Police said the accused persons, after obtaining bail, were not appearing before the court and it became difficult for the police to trace the people who provided surety for the accused. “The police took it seriously and investigated it. As of now nine people were interrogated and the hunt is on for others. With this racket the accused were not only helping anti-social elements, but also cheating criminal justice system. The gang was also operating in Devanahalli, Anekal and Tumakuru,’’ the Commissioner of Police said.
After a detailed investigation, a team of CCB officials led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Jai Maruthi caught Harinath Reddy, the kingpin of the racket, who was operating under the name Surety Reddy.
Reddy demanded Rs. 3,500 for getting the fake surety along with required documents and settled for an amount of Rs. 2,500. The detailed questioning of the accused helped police figure out the modus operandi and led to the arrest of the remaining eight involved.
According to the police, the accused confessed of operating the racket since 2015 and had bailed out as many as 500 accused involved in serious crimes. Reddy would create fake land records, election ID card and Adhaar Card and send his associates to bail out those in jail.
The accused would apply for a copy of the land records of random persons in various taluk offices and paste the photographs of his associates to make the latter look like the owner of the land, a senior police officer said.
