For a year and a half, at least 15 to 20 fake driving licences came into circulation every week from Barasat. Mostly, bus and truck drivers booked for traffic violations bought them to continue driving. Even members of an inter-state car-lifting gang took the help of the racket to avoid the police.

These are some of the findings of the detective department, following interrogation of five members of the racket, arrested on the night of September 13. The mastermind, Amal Kumar Dutta, operated from his residence in Dakshin Notunnagar, in Barasat.

According to the police, what has been found could be just the tip of an iceberg and the number of fake vehicle-related documents issued by the racket could run into lakhs.

“The racket had a wide reach. It is difficult to say how many fake licences are in circulation now,” said city detective chief Ajoy Kumar.

At a time when the death count on the city roads is escalating, the police are also clueless about how many registration certificates and route permits had been issued by the racket.

“If a vehicle had been stolen and registered with the help of fake documents at any public vehicles department office, then it would be extremely difficult to trace the original vehicle. We are concerned about this,” said an officer of the motor theft section of the detective department.

The officers are trying to find out the racket’s contacts in Bihar and Jharkhand. Car-lifters from the two states would visit the city, steal a car and change its number plate. They would buy forged documents, in keeping with the changed number plate, and leave Bengal.

“We are not sure about the client profile. But there are definitely more than five people involved in the racket,” said a senior officer of the detective department.

Apart from fake vehicle-related documents, the detectives have seized forged papers to obtain bank loans.

“We are interrogating the five to find out if vehicles would be purchased with the loans obtained with the fake documents,” added the officer.