A middle-aged woman was arrested with fake stamps worth Rs 34 lakh during a raid in the Gardanibagh area on Tuesday.

The arrest came a day after Patna police raided a locality at Bahadurpur and recovered fake stamps worth more than Rs 5 crore.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Amrit Raj told The Telegraph that the arrest was a made based on the information collected during the raid of Monday.

“The woman has been caught with a massive stock of fake stamps of different denominations. Her husband is presently lodged at a jail in Indore. The woman is being questioned by the police,” the SSP said. Sources said the name of the woman was Savita Singh. Her husband Arjun Singh is in jail for alleged involvement in fake stamps sale and purchase.

On Monday evening, the police had recovered a fake stamps as well as judicial and non-judicial stamp papers worth more than Rs 5 crore from a rented house at Bahadurpur under the Sachivalaya police station. One person, Brahmadev Jha, was arrested from the Gardanibagh area with some fake stamp papers. He was on his way to deliver them to someone when he was caught on the basis of a tip-off.

The man, when interrogated, gave the police the Gardanibagh address after which a raid was conducted there on Tuesday. Stamp papers belonging to other states were also recovered during the raid.

Police said the arrest of the woman had proved the fact that the gang is very strong and spread in other states as well.

“The back-to-back arrests have proved the fact that there are a lot more members in the gang and they are operating from different places. During Monday’s raid, the police recovered three printing machines and a computer. The arrest of this woman will give more leads and the police would be able to catch more people,” a police officer said.

Police sources said fake stamp racket was on in the state capital since years. Last year, the state police had been tipped-off about the racket by a team of special task force, Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

On December 3, 2011, the police had raided an enclosure at Exhibition Road and recovered fake judicial stamp papers worth almost a crore. Shekhar Priyadarshi, said to be the kingpin of the entire racket, was arrested in the raid.

Investigations have revealed that fake judicial stamp papers printed in the state capital are supplied to different cities of the country including Mumbai, New Delhi, Allahabad among others.

The police have managed to catch two people — Arjun Singh and the kingpin Shekhar Priyadarshi — who ran the racket in Patna.