LUCKNOW, June 17 -- The Uttar Pradesh STF on Tuesday arrested four members of an alleged interstate gang involved in forging mining royalty permits and supplying fake transit passes to contractors across western Uttar Pradesh, causing substantial losses to the state exchequer. The accused-Naeem Ali, Mohd Talib and Firoz Ali of Baghpat's Niwada village, and Mohd Arif of Meerut district-were arrested from Indian Nursing Home in Niwada. STF recovered a laptop, a car, eight mobile phones and Rs.2,430 in cash from their possession. According to STF officials, the gang procured genuine unused Integrated Smart Transit Pass (ISTP) royalty permits through associates and altered key details, including dates, before selling the forged documents to contractors and clerks linked to PWD projects and municipal bodies. During interrogation, the accused allegedly disclosed that the fake permits were supplied in districts such as Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Sambhal, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar. They reportedly charged contractors around Rs.20 per cubic metre of mining material and shared a major portion of the proceeds with suppliers of the original permits. The forged documents enabled the transportation and use of mining material without paying legitimate royalties, resulting in significant revenue losses to the government, the STF said. Investigators suspect the racket had been operating for nearly a decade and are probing the possible involvement of officials and employees associated with contractors and government projects. A case has been registered at Baghpat Kotwali police station under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and further investigation is underway....