Six held for forging birth, death certificates by hacking panchayat IDs: Police

Superintendent of Police (Aligarh Rural) Amrit Jain said the group forged documents by hijacking the email IDs used by panchayat secretaries and issuing fake certificates on their behalf.

The case came to light on August 14 when Nagendra Singh, secretary of Dattacholi Buzurg gram panchayat in Atrauli tehsil, tried to log in to the government portal and received an automated “forget password” message sent to his registered email. When no such message arrived in his inbox, Singh asked the district administration to update his email.

Four days later he started receiving requests from numbers seeking birth certificates and found certificates had been issued from his official ID that he had never authorised. Singh filed a complaint and an FIR was registered under section 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 66D of the IT Act, the SP said.

Jain added the gang used Telegram and WhatsApp groups to circulate citizens’ personal details and then created counterfeit documents.

“They generated fake birth certificates, tampered with Aadhaar details via unauthorised portals, helped applicants clear driving licence tests without appearing, and facilitated fraudulent claims under the PM-Kisan scheme,” the SP said.

Investigators seized five laptops, 13 mobile phones, a thumb-impression machine, multiple Aadhaar and PAN cards, and 976 fake birth certificates during searches, the officer added. Of the forged documents seized, 522 were linked to Dattacholi Buzurg, Jain said.

During questioning, the suspects admitted they organised the work like a digital assembly line: one member sourced personal data, another hacked official IDs, a third prepared the certificates, and others circulated them to clients, with payments routed through QR codes, Jain said. The accused told police they had met and coordinated through Telegram channels.

Police have begun tracing beneficiaries of the forged documents and are examining possible links between the arrested men and other cyber networks. “We will now probe the full extent of the racket, identify who used these forged certificates and check for connections with larger fraud rings,” Jain said.