The Telangana Police has arrested four people accused of altering fingerprints through surgeries to go to Kuwait for work purposes.
Two of those arrested are those who were seeking such surgeries whereas two others are those doing such surgeries. The police alos said they recovered medical kit used for surgeries and other incriminating material.
People who were deported from Kuwait after indulging in criminal activities and illegal stay are among those seeking such surgeries to gain re-entry into the West Asian country after playing the bio-metric system, according to police. Two such persons are among the four arrested, identified as Shankar Reddy (25) and Rendla Rama Krishna Reddy (38).
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NDTV reported the police as saying that the accused have carried out at least 11 surgeries, charging Rs 25,000 per procedure. The two accused are identified as Gajjalakondugari Naga Muneswar Reddy (36), a radiologist and X-Ray technician, and Sagabala Venkat Ramana (39), an anaesthesia technician.
The police said the two accused would cut the upper layer of fingertips, remove some part of the tissue, and re-stitch it, and in a month or two, the wound gets healed and there will be a slight change in fingerprint pattern, according to The New Indian Express.
They have conducted surgeries in Rajasthan and Kerala too. They had come to perform a surgery in Hyderabad when they were arrested. The police said that Special Operations Team, Malkajgiri Zone along with Ghatkesar Police conducted a joint operation and carried out the arrests, adding the accused were staying at a hotel in Hyderabad.
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"After the alteration of fingerprints, the clients would update their fingerprints at the Aadhaar centres by changing their addresses. Then they would apply for a visa to go to Kuwait. Once they get the visa, they fly to Kuwait. These new fingerprints last for one year in the same condition," The Express quoted Rachakonda Commissioner of Police Mahesh Bhagwat as saying.
The News Minute reported that the four persons have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including cheating, forgery, making counterfeit documents, and criminal conspiracy, as well as sections under the Aadhaar Act.
