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THREE people allegedly used the social video hosting platform, TikTok, to advertise their illegal CPR smart card services, a court heard.
The two men and a woman reportedly uploaded false information containing bogus addresses and forged agreements on the national electronic system.
Through their operations they are said to have managed to renew 17 smart cards.
The Indian trio has been charged with entering false information into an official database, intending to use it to falsely alter the addresses on 17 smart cards.
They were also charged with uploading, onto the Information and eGovernment Authority (iGA) website, proof-of-address documents on behalf of individuals who were not living at the addresses.
The defendants appeared at the High Criminal Court yesterday, and denied the charges.
According to a police officer, the scheme was first discovered when authorities spotted a TikTok video aimed at expats, offering document clearance services such as smart card renewals especially for those who had no valid addresses.
Through informants, the officer found out that the defendants – a 36-year-old clearance office proprietor, a 36-year-old investor and a 23-year-old female accountant – allegedly collaborated to run the illegal address-changing racket.
“The two men had agreed to carry out CPR renewal services in co-operation with the woman employed at another clearance office,” he told prosecutors in his statement.
“They forged address records to be used as true on official documents in the iGA’s system so that an address other than the clients’ real place of residence is registered in government databases.
“The defendants ran this racket by flouting rules and regulations in return for profit,” said the Bahraini policeman.
An Indian man, who used the defendants’ smart card renewal services, told the Public Prosecution that the defendants had charged him BD25 to modify the information on his CPR.
He added that after seeing the advertisement on TikTok, he reached out to the proprietor whose commercial registration (CR) shows him as owning 80 per cent of a clearance service business.
Meanwhile, another Indian man told prosecutors that his address and signature had been used on a fake documents without his consent.
“I didn’t sign a proof-of-address document for anyone, and I haven’t allowed anyone to live with me,” he claimed in a pre-trial interview.
A fourth witness, a man employed at the female accountant’s workplace, said that her job was to renew smart cards.
He identified the businessman, and co-defendant, as a person who frequented the office to receive new smart cards, and added that the investor was the head of the operation and issued orders to everyone.
Four more expats told prosecutors that they had used the trio’s “services” after learning about them on TikTok and finding their contact information in the video.
Both male suspects admitted to collaborating with each other after being questioned by authorities.
The investor said that the businessman would send him information of people who wanted their smart cards renewed through WhatsApp.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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