Rae Bareli’s fake birth certificate scam: 1,700 certs issued to minority individuals in a village having one such family

LUCKNOW: More skeletons tumbled out in the fake birth certificate scam as the physical verification drive intensified in villages of the Salon block of Rae Bareli district. The verification drive revealed that at least 1,700 fake birth certificates bearing the names of individuals from the minority community were issued from the Hindu-dominated Palhepur village in the Salon block though only one minority family with eight members lives in the village, , said persons privy to the verification drive.
Palhepur is among 12 villages in the Salon block where village development officer Vijay Singh Yadav, the prime accused in the fake birth certificate scam, was posted over the past two years.
“It is surprising how so many birth certificates with minority names were issued on bogus addresses in Palhepur when only one minority family originally lives there,” said local social activist Jitendra Singh, who has been instrumental in raising the issue before district authorities. Besides, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) red-flagged certain certificates made with addresses in some of these 12 villages after recovering certificates from some individuals earlier this year.
He further said that the scam was exposed in Palhepur village when a central agency arrived to verify a birth certificate issued in the name of Yusuf, son of Zakir, with a birth date of 1978. The birth certificate was issued earlier this year in March.
He added that Palhepur village was under the jurisdiction of Vijay Singh Yadav until June this year. The fake birth certificates were issued to bogus residents of Palhepur, Nooruddinpur, Lahurepur, Gopalpur Anantpur, Sirsira, Gadi Islamnagar, Kalu Jalalpur, Sanda Saidan, Aunananish, Madhavpur Ninaniya, Prithvipur, and Dubahana.
These facts surfaced during an ongoing verification drive in 12 villages of the Salon development block over the past 10 days. This verification was initiated after the arrest of Vijay Singh Yadav, and his associates, Zeeshan and his father Rizwan, who operated the Jan Sewa Kendra in Salon town. They were arrested on July 19 following an FIR lodged by assistant development officer (ADO) Jitendra Singh on July 17 at the Salon police station.
The FIR was lodged under sections 318 (4) for cheating, 319 (2) for cheating by impersonation, 336 (3) for forging electronic record, 337 for forging a document, 338 for forgery of valuable security and 340 (2) for using forged document or electronic record as genuine, under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The certificates were issued from the computer system of the Jan Sewa Kendra using the government’s Civil Registration System (CRS) portal, with the ID and password of Vijay Singh Yadav, without filling in the proper address and other details of the beneficiaries. Most of these certificates were generated between 8 and 9pm when the Jan Sewa Kendra was closed to outsiders.