Bhadohi (UP), Aug 24 (PTI) A Bihar man has been booked here for duplicating a West Bengal woman's Aadhaar card, opening a bank account in her name, and cheating people of lakhs of rupees by handing out fake letters for admission to different medical colleges across the country, police said on Sunday.

The accused Rohit Ranjan alias Pankaj Kumar Sharma, originally a resident of Bihar's Gaya district but has been staying at Suryawa in Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district, also bought a SIM card using the Aadhaar number of the woman, a labourer from West Bengal's Nadia district, they said.

According to a senior police official, a case was registered against Rohit at Suryawa police station on Saturday, on the basis of a report sent from Haringhaat police station in Nadia in this regard.

The offence was committed between September 29 and November 16, 2023, he said.

The case was registered under Sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 419 (punishment for cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and the IT Act.

The woman, Priya Mandal Sarkar (25), wife of Amit Mandal who is a mason, came to know about the incident when police arrived to interrogate her in a case of fraud.

Bhadohi Superintendent of Police Abhimanyu Manglik said that Rohit, claiming to be a member of the Medical Council Committee in New Delhi, duped a Suryawa youth named Gufran of Rs 10 lakh by handing out fake allotment and admission letters for a Kolkata Medical College.

Similarly, another youth was conned of Rs 8 lakh, Manglik said. PTI COR NAV RUK RUK

Identity theft and document forgery used to open accounts and issue fake admission letters, enabling fraud through impersonation. Unauthorized replication of a resident's biometric identity and related document forgery were used to open a bank account and obtain a SIM, while forged admission letters and impersonation of a medical regulatory official induced victims to transfer funds, giving rise to alleged offences of identity theft, forgery, cheating by personation, cheating inducing delivery of property, criminal breach of trust, and IT law violations.