Three arrested for involvement in postal stamp forgery racket

Mumbai, Oct 21 (PTI) Mumbai Police has arrested three persons allegedly involved in a postal stamp forgery racket operating from Delhi and Bihar, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused were identified as Shamshuddin Ahmed (35), Shahid Raza (35) and Rakesh Bind (45). Bind was arrested from the city while Ahmed and Raza were arrested from Delhi and Bihar.

There were transactions of Rs 8 crore from their bank accounts, the police official said.

The racket came to light after the Chief Post Master General of Mumbai received a complaint about forged stamps being used in bulk booking of letters and envelopes.

Initially, a few Rs 15 stamps pasted on letters appeared to be suspicious. Upon examination at the India Security Press, they were found to be fake, the police official said.

The postal department conducted an internal probe, and subsequently lodged a complaint at Mata Ramabai Ambedkar Marg police station.

Police first arrested Rakesh Bind, a Mumbai resident who had a franchise to provide stamps for bulk orders.

The probe then found links of the racket in Bihar and Delhi and led to two more arrests.

The gang sold forged postal stamps at half their face value.

A case was registered for `counterfeiting coins, government stamps, currency-notes or bank notes' under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and further probe was underway, the official said. PTI DC KRK