Correspondent
BOMDILA, 6 Jun: In a major breakthrough, the West Kameng district police busted a fake inner line permit (ILP) racket on Thursday.
On intensification of ILP checking at the Bhalukpong check gate on 4 June, fake ILPs were detected with the signature and seal of the Tawang circle officer (CO).
On confirmation from the Tawang CO that the signatures were fake and not signed by the officer concerned, and after cross-verification with the records of the CO office, a case [U/S 318(1)(2)(3)(4)/336 (1) (2) (3) (4) BNS] was registered at the Bhalukpong police station for cheating and forgery.
Acting swiftly and engaging various sources, a Bhalukpong PS team, led by Bhalukpong PS OC Inspector Thumgon Tali, under the guidance of SP Sudhanshu Dhama and Bomdila Headquarters DSP K Lingo, conducted a raid in Tezpur in Sonitpur district of Assam, and arrested one Ashish Ghosh (30), a resident of Gorawanpatty area in Tezpur, and seized important evidence.
The accused is a government employee who works as information assistant in the District Disaster Management Authority of Sonitpur district. He was arrested on 5 June and taken into police remand for further investigation.
Various items used for preparing fake ILPs were seized from his possession, including a laptop, four hard disks, 10 pen drives and a mobile phone.
Nine ATM cards, four cheque books of various banks, a few passbooks, and a cash amount of Rs 13,000 were also recovered.
During investigation, it was discovered that the accused had been committing the act surreptitiously for the last many years.
In the last two to three months, a total of 1,300 fake ILPs were prepared by the accused, forging the seal and signature of the Bhalukpong EAC and the Tawang CO.
Fake ILPs, both online and offline, were prepared and issued by the accused.
The case is currently under investigation.
ILP is issued from the EAC office and the Tourism Information Centre in Bhalukpong. It can also be applied for online, at a charge of Rs 100.
However, it is difficult for the police personnel to verify each and every signature of the issuing authorities, since temporary ILPs can be obtained from both the subdivisional administration and the headquarters of four districts: West Kameng, East Kameng, Tawang, and Bichom.
