67 tenants in Uttar Pradesh jailed for using fake identity

Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), Oct 18 (IANS) As many as 67 people, most hailing from Azamgarh district from where over a dozen suspects have been held for allegedly masterminding serial blasts in several Indian cities, were arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad district for living in rented houses on fake identity, a police official said Saturday.

Officials said all of them have been sent to jail and majority of them were residents of Azamgarh district. The tenants were arrested during night-long raids Friday.

'We have launched the drive with the hope to check terror activities and we have got this breakthrough,' said M.K. Bashal, deputy inspector general of police, Allahabad range.

All 39 police stations of the district had faced a mad rush by landlords for ensuring verification of their tenants in view of the serial blasts in various parts of India in recent months.

Since Sep 29, as many as 3,000 landlords have registered themselves for verification of their tenants in different police stations while nearly 1,000 applications were pending.

The directive to conduct the verification drive had been issued by Director General of Police Vikram Singh.

'We are bewildered by such a good response from landlords. We hope that at least 80 percent of the landlords will go for verification,' said P.K. Tiwari, inspector general of police, Allahabad range.

The tenant verification drive has picked up even in villages.

'It is my responsibility that each newcomer to our place should have a proper verfication. This was why I had gone to local police station with nearly 50 forms from house owners in the area,' said Ram Prakash Chaudhary, head of Jhalwa village located on the national highway connecting Allahabad to Kanpur.