Mangaluru: The City Crime Branch (CCB) police have uncovered a major fraud in which fake Aadhaar cards and pahani (land ownership) records were being used to obtain bail for accused in criminal cases. Five people have been arrested in connection with the racket.

Police Commissioner Sudheer Kumar Reddy C H said three cases have been registered so far. The arrested are Abdul Rehman (46) from Bappanadu in Mulki, Nishant Kumar (28) from Ambika Road, Nithin Kumar (31) from Pudu in Bantwal, Hasan Riyaz (46) from Indira Nagar in Bantwal, and Mohammed Hanif (39) from Kavoor-Palanir in Mangaluru.

The case came to light when Abdul Rehman was first detained within Urwa police station limits. During questioning, police found that he had produced forged documents to get bail for undertrial prisoners. Based on this, a case was filed at Urwa Police Station.

Further investigation led to the arrest of Nishant Kumar, who worked at a computer centre in Kodialbail and was helping in preparing fake documents. Both men were remanded to police custody for further interrogation.

Police said the gang would create Aadhaar cards by pasting their photographs over original details, and then use these fake identities to appear before courts. This tricked judges into granting bail in at least two serious cases, including murder and SC/ST atrocities.

The probe later revealed that Nithin Kumar had used a fake identity under the name of Ganesh K Salian to secure bail in one case, while Hasan Riyaz posed as AM Hameed to obtain bail in another. Mohammed Hanif acted as a middleman in these fraudulent transactions.

The Commissioner also noted that similar frauds have been detected in Udupi. In one instance, a person discovered his land records had been illegally manipulated after the first case was filed in Urwa.

Police believe more people are involved in this racket, and the investigation is still ongoing.