Dimapur, September 12 (MExN): A big racket involving the issuance of driving license by touts has been busted by the Dimapur police official on September 11. The raid, in which two persons were arrested, might be an indicator of a bigger nexus between the state transport department officials and the criminals.
Two touts, PK Gupta and Mukesh Jain, who have been issuing driving license carrying the signatures and seals besides various other official documents of District Transport Officers of Zunheboto and Mon District, and residing in Dimapur’s Ragailong colony, Purana Bazar, were arrested September 7 and 8 last. The police have recovered official documents, official seals, computer set, fax machines, RC Books, driving licenses with signatures of the DTOs of Zunheboto and Mon.
According to a top police official here, the arrested two touts were from good family backgrounds and that they were running the racket for more than three or four years.
The criminals had good living conditions, and their houses were well furnished with fridges, computers and other amenities, which according to a police official, implies that the crooks might have been earning ‘quite well’.
However, the biggest question now is whether the state transport officials are in hand in gloves with the crooks or not.
According to a police official, the signatures and official seals on the licenses and other documents are very much ‘genuine’, clearly implying that the District Transport Officials are very much aware of the racket going on under their very noses.
A sealed ‘Pollution Control Certificate’ which has been seized by the police reads that it will expire on ‘March 2008’, it has date of issuanceas ‘September 5’, the certificate has a validity for six months.
According to police, anyone would be willing to pay any amount of money if they could get these ready made documents within hours, usually the processing of these documents takes weeks since it has to be done after thorough verification of the drivers.
However, on being asked about the seriousness of the case, the police official said that ‘no one knows about the internal matters of the department, but now that it has come to picture…there are a lot of complexities. He declined to divulge further.
‘Signatures forged’
However, even as the police are going on with their investigation, the District Transport Officer of Mon District today strongly refuted that the transport officials are involved in any way with the racket and termed it as ‘fabricated and having no basis’.
A press note issued by DTO, Mon, Pukhavi Sumi, said that he has never issued any driving license to any person without proper verification, and that the question of seals and signatures on the driving license is ‘totally not true’.
“And with regard to the official documents of DTO, Mon, seized with the two touts is totally false and fabricated,” the Mon DTO said.
The DTO further clarified that the driving lincense and other documents seized from the two touts with the seal and signatures of DTO, Mon District are gorged ones which are no issued and signed under his capacity.
‘Police to investigate further’
However, Dimapur Police official said that the police would go on till the end to unearth the whole racket and until the criminals are brought to book.
The police official said that the ‘seals’ are the main ‘evidence’ which the police would be using to prove the forgery section. Surprisingly, the two arrested criminals are reported to have been granted bail after they were forwarded to judicial custody.
The police official further said that there are big chances of a criminal network between these touts and vehicle lifters, since any vehicle lifter after stealing a vehicle would want a new registration number for the stolen vehicle.
Police official said that the main reason why they have busted this case is to bring down the cases of vehicle lifting in the state.
Further investigation is on.
