3 held for issuing fake COVID challans

NEW DELHI, Jan 15: Three civil defence volunteers have been arrested for allegedly issuing fake COVID-19 challans and collecting the penalty amount, police said on Friday.
The accused — Sunny (19), Yashwant Rathi (21) and Lucky (20) — were posted in the office of SDM (New Delhi) in Jamnagar House, they said. They mostly issued fake challans to people visiting the Talkatora Garden, they said.
The matter came to notice on December 31, when a resident of Shakarpur was issued a fake challan by the accused for not wearing masks when he was sitting inside the Talkatora Garden with his friend, police said.  In his complaint, the victim alleged that the three volunteers came in Khakhi uniform and told him that they were posted in the office of SDM, New Delhi. They told us that since we had violated COVID-19 guidelines by not wearing face masks, challans of Rs 2,000 each will be issued, the victim alleged.  The complainant did not have cash so he paid them via Paytm, police said. However, the complainant got suspicious and approached the police. Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said, “We conducted a detailed inquiry and sought details of the Paytm beneficiary. We got to know that the mobile number was registered in the name of one civil defence employee named Sunny.” (PTI)
The alleged challan was found not issued from the SDM office and was fake and forged, he said, adding that the three civil defence volunteers were then arrested.
“All the accused confessed that they captured the COVID-19 violation challan format in their mobile phones from the SDM office and prepared colour printouts. They then started issued them to people who were found without masks,” the DCP said.
The cheated amount was equally distributed among the three, the police said. (PTI)