Mumbai, May 29 (IANS) The Mumbai Crime Branch Unit has arrested two persons from outside the Mumbai airport for allegedly possessing counterfeit stamp papers worth more than Rs 62.5 lakh.

According to the Mumbai Crime Branch, the accused have been identified as Rohit Jadhav (37), a resident of Badlapur, and Narendra Ahire (46), a resident of Kopar Khairane in Navi Mumbai.

Police said the duo was allegedly carrying fake stamp papers for delivery to another person when they were intercepted by the Crime Branch team.

The Crime Branch Unit 8 team seized 251 counterfeit non-judicial stamp papers, each purportedly valued at Rs 25,000, taking the total face value of the seized papers to approximately Rs 62,50,500. Police said the forged stamp papers were intended for use in various non-judicial works and transactions.

According to investigators, the accused allegedly prepared affidavits for loan applicants using these fake stamp papers and then asked them to travel to Delhi for loan processing. During the journey, the accused would allegedly make the bag containing the documents disappear and later inform the victims that the bag had been stolen, due to which the loan process could not proceed.

Police said Rohit Jadhav is originally from Ambernath, while Narendra Ahire hails from Kopar Khairane in Navi Mumbai. Investigators suspect Ahire to be the mastermind behind the fake stamp paper racket.

According to police, Ahire allegedly handed over the fake stamp papers to Rohit Jadhav for further delivery.

The accused were produced before the Esplanade Court, which remanded them to seven days of police custody.

The Mumbai Crime Branch is conducting further investigations to trace the source of the counterfeit stamp papers, identify the intended recipients, and uncover any larger network involved in the operation.

Earlier in February, a Mumbai Police team arrested two more persons from Uttar Pradesh and Delhi in connection with a postal stamp forgery racket and recovered fake stamps with a face value of nearly Rs 28 lakh from them.

–IANS

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