Two held for selling fake licences

Lalitpur, March 22

The Metropolitan Police Range, Jawalakhel raided a rented house in Siddhi Park, Karyabinayak Municipality-5, and arrested two suspects involved in making and selling fake driving licences.

The suspects are Anil Kumar Pakhrin, 38, and Ganesh Bahadur Gole, 31, of Sindhuli district. Kumar, who had been providing lekhapadhi sewa (legal service) at the Office of Transport Management in Ekantakuna for the past nine years, was the brain behind the racket and would produce and sell fake licence for up to Rs 25,000 depending on the category.

SP Ashok Singh said a printer, six fake licences, 190 holograms and seal of TMP officer and 105 blank licence cards were also confiscated from the duo. The holograms look genuine and are suspected to be provided by TMO employees. He informed that an investigation into the circulation of holograms from TMO was under way to establish involvement of its employees in the forgery racket.

Pakhrin and Gole would promise to provide ‘genuine’ licences to aspirants without even applying and taking practical test. They would lure persons, who failed to get through the previous exams, into obtaining licence without the hassle of appearing in the driving tests conducted by the TMO. Gole used to find such clients in and around the TMO while Pakhrin would forge and sell the licence to them.

Serpentine queues and hassles people need to face at the TMO, all thanks to mismanagement, were aiding the racketeers to sell fake driving licences, said investigators. Despite knowing that it was illegal to acquire and possess licence from Pakhrin, some people bought the licence from him considering the hassles they would have to go through.