Nashik: With another racket busted in Nashik city, police has arrested a 32-year-old man and his partner for issuing e-passes meant for inter-district travelling in exchange for money. The suspect, Krushna alias Rakesh Sadanand Surve, is a resident of Dombivali and native of Padve village in Ratnagiri taluka. According to police, the e-passes are issued by for free for people wanting to travel from one part of the state to another.
“Recently, an audio clip of a conversation between two people regarding an e-pass for inter-district travel had gone viral on a social media platform,” a police officer said. “In the audio, one person was telling the other person that the cost of an e-pass would be Rs 2,000 and since the process of issuing e-passes for inter-district travel has been stopped in Mumbai and Thane, the e-pass would be issued through Nashik city police,” he added.
Taking serious cognizance of the same, senior police officers had instructed the crime branch to immediately investigate the matter and arrest the person involved in issuing fake e-passes. Accordingly, an FIR was registered at Sarkarwada police station on August 15 and the suspect was traced to Ratnagiri from where he was arrested. During interrogation, Surve told the police that he had issued 15 e-passes to people going from Mumbai to Ratnagiri and had taken Rs 2,000 from them.
“We are investigating whether the e-passes given by Surve were genuine or fake,” a police officer said.