2 students held for forging licence,getting 100 SIM cards

Acting on a tip-off,the ATS team arrested the duo on Friday. Police said the two allegedly forged a driving licence of a woman named Pooja Palande by pasting a different photograph. They submitted the bogus driving licence and procured about 100 SIM cards,mostly prepaid,of Tata Docomo,Reliance,Idea and other companies from mobile phone shops since September 2010.

Investigations revealed that the two purchased SIM cards in bulk to enjoy free talk time schemes.

An ATS officer said that mobile shops allegedly issued the SIM cards without verifying the documents properly. “It is shocking that two men got about 100 SIM cards mostly in the name of a woman. The document verification process was faulty. We are probing it,” the officer said.

Assistant police inspector Atul Sabnis of ATS said that the duo are MBA students of Sinhagad College in Kondhwa.

ATS booked the suspects on charges of forgery under sections 468,471,34 of Indian Penal Code.

The suspects were produced in the magistrate court on Saturday. Public prosecutor Rajani Naik sought their police custody,saying that ATS wants to probe whether more persons were involved in the crime. Naik said that custodial interrogation is also required to seize the laptop used to forge the driving licence. She said that ATS is probing whether the SIM cards were used for any illegal activities.

Judicial Magistrate (first class) Vivek Deshmukh remanded the suspects to police custody till Monday.