Fraudster issuing fake certificates arrested

BANGALORE: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths busted a fake certificate racket and arrested a tout on charges of forging signatures of officials and seals to create certificates.The accused Jayaram (44) was operating from the Taluk office.He not only created fake birth and death certificates but also issued fake building approval plans According to the police, Jayaram worked as a stamp vendor at the Taluk office and he started this racket a few years ago by getting fake seals of the BBMP and Taluk offices.Jayaram was arrested two years ago on same charges and was remanded to judicial custody.But soon after he was released on bail, he returned to his earlier business and started creating fake certificates.Jayaram used to charge between `500 to 2,000 depending upon the nature of the certificates.He confessed to have created hundreds of certificates but did not declare the details of the particulars.Police have confiscated around 41 seals of various departments of BBMP, Village Panchayat Secretary and also six maps of the apartment approval documents with fake seals of BBMP, CCB sleuths said.Further investigations on how many apartments in the city have received fake approvals from Jayaram is being carried out by the sleuths.Also, they suspect he might be involved with a bigger racket which has not only incurred heavy loss to the BBMP but has also helped to construct many illegal structures, a policeman said.The police have received around 12 complaints from people whose documents were approved by Jayaram.The police investigation is further going on in regard with the complaints.