MUMBAI, Oct. 21 -- The MRA Marg police have recently arrested three people after the General Post Office (GPO) busted a major fake postal stamps racket. The racket came to light after the postal department officials scrutinised certain postal letters and found the stamps affixed were fake. According to the police, the racket was being operated from Delhi and Samastipur, Bihar, and the gang was selling the forged postal stamps at half their face value. The incident came to light in September when Bhopal's postal department sent a confidential letter to the chief postmaster general of Mumbai, about five letters from the city carrying fake postal stamps. The stamps were then sent to the India Security Press, Nashik, which confirmed that the stamps were fake. The department then contacted the financial company that had sent out these letters and learnt they had outsourced work to another firm, which in turn had a franchise owner, Rakesh Ramdhani Bind, 42, provide stamps. The postal stamps used in the Indian Posts are printed at the India Security Press in Nashik. India Post has appointed 10 franchises to provide stamps to the general public or sell to various customers who have bulk usage. One of the franchise owners, Bind from Sion Koliwada, was given a franchise in February 2024. The financial company had sent around 4,986 letters through him on June 10 and around 6,995 letters on June 13. Ashutosh Kumar, 42, a postal inspector with the GPO near CSMT, filed a complaint with the police. A case was registered under sections 178 (counterfeiting coin, government stamps, currency-notes or bank notes), 179 (using as genuine, forged or counterfeit coin, Government stamp, currency notes or bank-notes), 180 (possession of forged or counterfeit coin, government stamp, currency-notes or bank-notes), 181 (making or possessing instruments or materials for forging or counterfeiting coin, government stamp, currency notes or bank-notes), 186 (prohibition of fictitious stamps) and 318 (cheating) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023. "Additional commissioner of police Abhinav Deshmukh and DCP Pravin Munde immediately formed teams to investigate the matter," said a police officer. The police detained Bind on September 19, and during interrogation, learnt he acquired fake postal stamps from Delhi and Samastipur in Bihar. The teams then left for Bihar and arrested two men - Shamsuddin Gaffar Ahmed, 35, and Shahid Raza, 35 - on October 16. "The five bank accounts of the Bihar-based accused had transactions worth around Rs.8 crore. Our teams have found that they used to sell fake or forged postal stamps at half the rate and used to send them to the franchises or other accused via courier," said the officer. The police have also learnt that the accused sent forged postal stamps all over the country, and it is a nationwide racket. The arrested accused are in police custody till October 23....