PUNE, Aug. 14 -- In a major scam related to the upcoming Kumbh Mela in Nashik, fraudsters have allegedly issued eight fake work orders worth over Rs.1,349 crore over the past 14 weeks. The first two cases, involving orders of over Rs.39 crore, were detected in April, and a local resident, Abhishek Jhare, was subsequently arrested for allegedly creating the fake documents. The remaining six fake work orders, collectively worth Rs.1,311 crore, were detected earlier this week. Kumbh Mela minister Girish Mahajan alerted Nashik police commissioner Sandeep Karnik, following which a team busted a three-member gang based in Jamner, Jalgaon, on Tuesday. The police arrested Tanay Mahajan and Narendra Mahajan while the third accused, Shakil Sheikh, is allegedly absconding. Girish Mahajan denied being related to the two Mahajans. "All three accused are notorious elements," he said. "There are police cases against them in Jamner as well. I have asked the police not to spare anyone in this case." According to Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Kumbh Mela Authority (NTKMA) officials, all eight bogus work orders carried fake digital signatures purportedly belonging to Nashik divisional commissioner and NTKMA chairman Praveen Gedam. "Genuine work orders are digitally signed by the heads of department implementing the Kumbh projects, not the NTKMA chairman," said an NTKMA official. Gedam detected the fraud in April when a contractor approached him to verify a Rs 35-crore work order for a CCTV project, which he had got from Jhare. "I immediately realised that it was a fake work order as it carried my digitally forged signature," he said. After Jhare was arrested, the police found two other fake work orders on his phone, one worth Rs.2 crore for providing traffic wardens to the Nashik police during the Kumbh, and another for Rs.1.5 crore for repairs to a government hospital. In the latest case, the gang allegedly prepared six fake work orders worth Rs.1,311 crore for supplying food, drinking water, housekeeping staff, bedding and buckets for police personnel during the Kumbh. The remaining two work orders were for installing a solar power plant and supplying batteries and inverters for the event. The scam has raised questions about how forged work orders could be generated for high-value Kumbh projects despite the government's digital systems. NTKMA commissioner Sekhar Singh said that a system was already in place under which work orders for projects awarded to bidders were uploaded on the official website, allowing anyone to verify them....