Indian citizenship on sale, and it's for cheap

AS INDIAN AS YOU ARE: Anand Kumar Gupta has all the documents to prove he is an Indian.

      

Fake Gupta's genuine PAN card.

And his voter I-card.

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New Delhi: A terrorist could easily acquire foolproof Indian identity for a few thousand rupees, a CNN-IBN investigation has revealed.

Anand Kumar Gupta invested Rs 35,000 in bribes and in 45 days got a ration card, a PAN card, a voter I-Card, a birth certificate and a passport - documents which prove he is an Indian citizen.

What’s shocking though that Gupta is a fictitious person and was created on a computer. It’s what a sleeper terrorist cell would do. Create a fake identity and live anonymously, waiting to be unleashed.

Undercover CNN-IBN reporters approached Jai Mata Di property dealers in Delhi to rent a house. Brokers Ajay and Sanjay took Rs 4,000 and a landlord Rs 10,000 and got the reporters a house in West Delhi. The rent agreement was in the name of Anand Kumar Gupta.

Tenant verification was made mandatory in Delhi after the attack on Parliament in December 2001, but the property dealers promised us to get police verification without having to meet the police. The only wanted Gupta’s identity proof, which could be easily arranged for by getting a fake driving licence in Meerut.

The drive to Indian citizenship

The property dealers in Delhi guided the reporters to a tout in the Meerut Road Transport Office. For Rs 1,000 and in four hours Gupta got a fake driving licence, his first proof of Indian citizenship.

With a fake driving licence and a rent agreement as residence proof, CNN-IBN reporters next approached MTNL for a landline connection. The phone was granted—a rent agreement document backed by an MTNL bill at the same address buttressed Gupta’s proofs of residence.

Next on the agenda was getting a ration card, is issued by the Food and Supplies Department. Ration shop owner Rajender, one of the hundreds brokers in Delhi, got a ration card for Gupta for just Rs 800.