The case of fake birth certificates in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh is getting bigger and sinister every day. The fraud happened to the extent that the population of the villages was not considered. As per recent revelations, the number of birth certificates issued in Nuruddinpur village of Rae Bareli exceeds exponentially compared to the actual population of the village. The population of the village is only 8,000 but the number of birth certificates issued exceeded 12,000. Zeeshan, the main accused in the case, managed it with the help of village development officer Vijay Yadav.
It is the job of the village development officer to verify the birth, income, caste and death certificates. Zeeshan could only apply for these certificates on behalf of the applicants, in this case, illegal immigrants. Vijay Yadav allegedly gave his number to Zeeshan which was used for the verification process. Ideally, the village development officer receives an OTP on his mobile that is used to confirm if the application is valid and only then a certificate can be issued. However, Zeeshan, with the help of Yadav, violated the process.
How big is the fraud?
According to the ground report of Aaj Tak, birth certificates issued in Nuruddinpur are 1.5 times more than the population of the village, which comes under Yadav’s jurisdiction. The husband of the village’s head stated that the population of the village is approx. 7,000-8,000. However, based on the village’s address, at least 12,000 birth certificates were issued as informed by the officials to the village head.
He explained that the certificates were issued without being recorded in the family register. That means the village head was not informed about these birth certificates. Neither CSC nor Yadav informed the village head about it.
Furthermore, while issuing the birth certificates, the birth rate proportion was ignored completely. In the case of Palahi village, the population of the village is only 4,500 but the number of birth certificates issued was 819. The village head Deepak said that there is only one Muslim family in the village but the birth certificates issued in their village’s name were all under Muslim names. He was taken by surprise when he was informed about the fraud. Similar incidents happened in other villages of Rae Bareli.
Vijay Yadav filed the complaint
When the matter got exposed, Yadav, whose ID was used to create the certificates, filed a complaint to save himself. He claimed that Zeeshan betrayed his trust. The police and ATS are investigating the case from other angles as well. As per media reports, Yadav lives at Zeeshan’s house as a tenant. He claimed to have given his CUG number to Zeeshan based on trust but it was used to issue fake certificates.
Investigation underway
The investigation in the matter is under to determine if any large organisation was behind Zeeshan’s operations or if the illegal immigrants approached him individually. The investigating agencies are also looking into the finances of Zeeshan to determine how much money he received for each fake certificate. Investigation has revealed that they might have made in crores. Those who got certificates from him were arrested from different parts of the country and out of those, many were Bangladeshis and Rohingyas. PFI’s name has also emerged during the investigation.
So far, Zeeshan, his father Riyaz and one another person has been arrested along with Vijay Yadav in the matter. The investigating agencies believe more people could be involved and more revelations will be made during the ATS operation.
