LUCKNOW: Just a stone’s throw from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, at a bustling Aadhaar Seva Kendra (ASK) in Lucknow’s Ratan Square complex, touts openly offer to forge identities—for a price. So confident are their operations that they even promised to create an identity nearly identical to that of Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak.
When a reporter visited the Aadhaar centre on Vidhan Sabha Marg to investigate widespread rumours of a racket, he encountered a network of touts operating in plain sight—including three young women working the crowd.
One tout, identifying himself as Rajesh, approached the reporter. Dropping a bait, the reporter claimed he wanted to change his name from "Brijesh Pathak" to "Brajesh Pathak," despite lacking supporting documents. "Ho jayega (it will be done)," Rajesh replied without hesitation.
Rajesh then swiftly downloaded a real voter ID (EPIC) of a different Brajesh Pathak from Badaun, digitally pasted the reporter’s photograph onto it, and inserted a fake barcode. Within minutes, he secured an Aadhaar update appointment for 12:50 p.m. the same day. "Go straight to the verifier. No questions will be asked," he assured, after accepting ₹1,500 via UPI.
Inside the Aadhaar centre, events unfolded exactly as promised. At counter-5, the verifier barely glanced at the forged documents. By 2 p.m., "Brajesh Pathak," along with about 20 others helped by touts, was called ahead of genuine applicants. The reporter was directed to counter-22, where a young woman operator processed the update mechanically, capturing his iris scan. Within an hour, a fake identity was officially created.
The reporter was embedded with a team of officials already investigating the Aadhaar Kendra following reports of ID fabrication.
The ASK in question has, for the past five years, been operated by Smart Chip Private Limited, the Indian arm of the French multinational IDEMIA Group. Following the successful sting, TOI reached out to IDEMIA for comment. After a day’s wait, a company representative stated: "Since we are under contract with UIDAI (the government agency issuing Aadhaar), we cannot comment." Privately, however, the source admitted that some staff members at the Ratan Square ASK were allegedly involved in malpractices, while insisting Smart Chip Private Limited was not responsible for document verification.
Meanwhile, the UIDAI regional office in Lucknow had also conducted its own undercover operation a day earlier. Their findings confirmed that touts, with the complicity of some Smart Chip Private Limited staff, were facilitating the creation of fake identities.
Speaking to TOI, Prashant Kumar Singh, Deputy Director General of UIDAI (Lucknow region), said: "A surprise inspection at the Ratan Square ASK revealed irregularities, prompting a decoy operation on April 21 that exposed the modus operandi. The matter has been escalated for a full probe and filing of an FIR. We assure that UIDAI’s backend systems are robust, verifying document authenticity and rejecting fake submissions."
