Hyderabad: The Aasara pension scam, which is being probed by the detective department, could be much wider and may bring into light similar frauds using the unique identification documents. The accused cheated Aasara pension beneficiaries by downloading the Aadhaar details from the e-seva website.
“The role of the mandal revenue officials and bank executives is being probed now. A few hundred bank accounts were opened using forged documents,” said a senior official of the detective department.
The commissioner’s task force along with the central crime station caught three persons Mohammed Abdul Khader Nakshbandi Aziz, owner of SBI customer service point, Shaik Shabbir Hussain, a job seeker, and Mohammed Aslam, a junior assistant with TSSPDCL in Nalgonda district for their role in the scam.
The trio withdrew Rs 40 lakh meant for the Aasara pension beneficiaries by downloading the Aadhaar details from the e-seva website, the police said.
The police said that Shabbir Husain worked as a data entry operator at an e-seva centre and had teamed up with Mohammed Abdul Khader and Mohammed Aslam. The police is seeking their further custody to get more details.
“The pension is disbursed after taking the biometric finger impressions. Both Abdul Khader and Mohammed Aslam affixed their fingers 300 times. The scam started when the Aasara scheme was introduced in the state and they continued their illegal activity till they were caught,” said the official.
The police suspect that the gang might have involved in other frauds also. “The manner in which they had carried out the scam points out to their involvement in other frauds as well,” said the police.
The police is writing to the revenue department, Unique Identification Authority of India and the department of information and technology to inform them about the scam. The electronic gadgets seized from the trio were sent to the forensic laboratory. “Based on the findings, we will further question them,” said the police.
