By Nayak Paudel
Kathmandu, Jan. 4: Law enforcement agencies have been actively busting rackets involved in producing fake documents for different purposes over the years and have arrested many individuals.
However, documents are still being forged through several rackets across the country following which the law enforcement agency has requested the respective departments to verify the documents in the concerned departments.
According the senior officers at Nepal Police, fake documents are hard to distinguish with naked eyes but the concerned department which issued the genuine documents could be asked to verify them.
“There are rackets which can make certificates of universities, driving license and also the clearance report of Nepal Police. Since we lack digital equipment everywhere to identify whether a submitted document is fake or original, the best way is to ask the department from which the document was issued,” said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and central police spokesperson Basanta Bahadur Kunwar.
Meanwhile, a recent arrest of seven individuals from the Tribhuvan International Airport on Saturday night revealed that fake documents of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 are also being prepared.
The authorities at the airport had arrested seven Nepalis on their way to the United Arab Emirates by submitting fake negative reports of COVID-19. Nepal Police is said to have begun an investigation to find out the source of the fake document and bust the illegal act.
A team from the District Police Office of Dhanusha had also arrested six individuals from Janakpur Sub-metropolitan City on Thursday along with fake stamps of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and other different government departments alongside fake certificate templates from a hotel. Among the arrested, five were Nepalis and one was an Indian national.
The district police have begun investigation under organised crime and forged documents by taking the arrested persons under judicial custody through the district court.
In the past, Nepal Police had arrested even senior officials of government departments and even raided education consultancies following their involvement in forming fake documents for international purposes such as visa application.
“The one who produce the fake documents along with the one who used it will be liable to punishment under the law and face several other consequences from the department where the fake documents were submitted. We request the public to not fall for fake document schemes but to rather inform the nearest police station regarding the illegal business,” said SSP Kunwar.