Police have nabbed five people, including a woman, for allegedly helping a nephew of Lawrence Bishnoi in procuring a fake passport, officials said on Wednesday.
According to police, the accused helped Sachin Thapan and other gangsters got fake passports. Thapan, a nephew of Bisnoi, was allegedly involved in the conspiracy for murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. He later fled the country.
Anmol Bishnoi and Sachin Thapan plotted the murder of Moosewala. They hired shooters, provided them with equipment and later fled the country using fake passports, police said.
The accused have been identified as Rahul Sarkar, 27, Arjit Kumar, 55, Navneet Prajapati, 33, Somnath Prajapati, 33, and a 27-year-old woman, they said.
On July 4, police got a tip-off regarding movement of Sarkar, who was in contact with the members of Lawrence Bishnoi gang. A trap was laid near Saket Metro Station foot-over-bridge to nab him.
As police lay in their wait, a car was spotted near the bridge and its driver was signalled to stop, but he accelerated and tried to flee.
However, the driver, Sarkar, was overtaken and apprehended, Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Benita Mary Jaiker said.
At his instance, his other accomplices, Kumar, Navneet, Somnath, and the woman were also apprehended, the DCP said.
During interrogation, Sarkar revealed that he was in touch with criminals, especially with members of Lawrence Bishnoi gang. He helped Thapan get a fake passport with forged documents, made in the name of one Tilak Raj Toteja, a resident of Sangam Vihar, police said.
Each member of the gang played an instrumental role in forging the passports or procuring fake documents, it was revealed.
Arjit Kumar asked Rahul to get the Indian passport made with fake ID. They charged Rs 1.5 lakh per passport, police said.
Sarkar used his own house address in making the fake passport.
Around a year ago, Sarkar got a fake voter ID and Aadhaar card made in the name of one Tilak Raj Toteja from a man named Navneet, who ran an Aadhaar centre in Tughlaqabad Extension area, and is also Somnath’s uncle, they said.
(With PTI inputs)
Toteja was the previous landlord of the property which is currently in possession of Sarkar’s family. The fact that electricity bill still comes in Toteja’s name, gave Sarkar the idea to use his id, police said.
Sarkar knew Navneet for last the five years as he used to send clients to his centre for routine Aadhaar-related work, they said.
Sarkar approached Navneet seven months ago with an offer to prepare another Aadhaar in Toteja’s name and offered him Rs 15,000. Sarkar already had obtained a voter ID card in the Toteja’s name, they said.
An agent from Gujarat introduced Arjit Kumar to one Deep Siddhu, who introduced himself as a resident of Ukraine. He contacted Kumar calling him on WhatsApp using an international mobile phone number, police said.
Siddhu provided four photos to Kumar and approached him to procure a few fake passports, including one for Thapan.
According to the deal, Rs 1.70 lakh was fixed for each passport. Later, Kumar approached Sarkar and made four fake passports, including that of Thapan, on the basis of fake IDs, they said.
Somnath had come to Delhi in 2018 and had been living at Navneet’s, at his maternal uncle’s, house in Tughlakabad Extension.
On direction of Navneet seven months ago, he filed an online form and completed biometric process for Sarkar on the basis of Toteja’s voter ID, which as fake, police said.
The woman was in contact with Kumar and Sarkar, both. She was the connecting link between them, they said.
One pistol with two live cartridges, two laptops, four mobile phones, one Wifi dongle, and bio-metric instruments used at the time of making Aadhaar Cards etc were recovered from their possession, police added.
The Delhi Police had on Saturday said one of the key conspirators in Moosewala’s killing had fled from India over a month before the incident.
Moosewala was shot dead in Punjab's Mansa district on May 29.
The Delhi Police has so far arrested five people in connection with the case.
(With PTI inputs)
