mumbai: A fake entry pass operation ran quietly inside Maharashtra’s legislative complex — until Industries Minister Uday Samant flagged it.
Marine Drive Police have arrested five people, including government office staffers, for allegedly printing and selling counterfeit passes to access Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai. The racket came to light during the state’s budget session, about as awkward a time as any for a security breach at the legislature.
According to a Times of India report, investigators found that the accused had forged requisition letters in the name of the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and used them to generate roughly 30 fake entry passes. Those passes were then sold for anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 apiece.
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The five arrested Dattatraya Keshav Gunjal (53), Ganpat Bhau Jawale (50), Nagesh Shivaji Patil (42), Manoj Ananda Morbale (40), and Swapnil Ramesh Tayde (40) — are clerks and peons employed in government offices who allegedly colluded with at least one private individual. Two Mantralaya employees, Mahesh Dumpalwar and Lavesh Shankar Nakate, are currently on the run.
One detail stands out: Gunjal allegedly made a pass for himself listing his designation as an “advisor to the Chief Minister’s Office,” complete with his photograph and a forged Mantralaya stamp.
All five were arrested on March 25. Their mobile phones have been seized for forensic analysis.
A constable from the Local Arms unit has also been questioned. “The matter is serious as it concerns security at a sensitive government establishment,” an official told the Times of India.
Police are now trying to identify who actually used the fake passes to enter Vidhan Bhavan. Special teams have been formed to trace the two absconding accused and map the full scope of the operation.
The bigger question this raises: how does a 30-pass counterfeiting operation run inside a government building without anyone noticing? Police say insider involvement was almost certainly required. That investigation is ongoing.
