Five persons were arrested from Nimti Jhora tea estate for allegedly running a fake Aadhaar card racket in Alipurduar on Monday evening.

Sources said two laptops, a camera, one scanner and some Aadhaar cards which appear to be fake have been seized from them.

The arrested quintet have been identified as Ashim Sarkar and Swapan Sarkar from Alipurduar, Somen Bag and Ujjwal Sarkar from North 24-Parganas and Sanjay Oraon, the inhabitant of the tea estate.

“It seems that they have cheated a number of people. Our officers are probing the case and gathering more information,” said Kuntal Banerjee, the additional police chief of Jaigaon.

During the past few weeks, those dwelling in Dooars tea estates without Aadhaar are desperately scouting for options to get the cards as the state has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with ration cards. Also, the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with PF accounts.

“It seems that a section of people are trying to explore this opportunity and rackets have become active in the tea belt,” said a police officer.

On Tuesday, the quartet were produced at a local court and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.