Two notorious Indian criminals recently detained for forging documents and scamming people have managed to secure bail by doing what they do best – faking documents signed by nonexistent cops and guarantors.

Mohammed Lukman Shaikh, 48, and Bashir Mulla, 62, both with long criminal records under their belts, were put behind bars a little over a month ago for forging passports and other Government-issued documents. The two were so well-known for their document-faking talents that during their trial hearings, the Thane court warned police to recheck documents submitted during the proceedings, as both had a history of fabricating papers and cheating the authorities. Even so, Shaikh and Mulla managed to use their skills to secure bail and now they are nowhere to be found.

The two con artists were in judicial custody when they managed to secure bail and walk free. This happened a month ago, but the police just learned about it three days ago, after Vijay Sanap, a constable attached to Srinagar police station in Thane, discovered something suspicious in the paperwork of their case.

“I have to maintain a record of the accused granted bail by the court, do verification of witnesses by the police station and keep track of the dates of the cases,” Sanap said. “I knew the court had issued a bail order for the two accused last month but they could not be released as the verification of the guarantors was pending. There is a procedure where the witnesses’ record is checked and only then can the accused be released. This (the bail hearing) was on July 20, and after that there is no more mention of the case.”

Then, three days ago, Sanap found a paper which said that both the accused had been released. It was signed by by senior inspector Kaarkar of Srinagar police station and submitted by one constable RS Patil. “As I myself am attached to the same police station I know that there is no one called Patil there and also the name of the senior inspector was different. I inquired with the Srinagar police station and found out that the verification order had not yet reached them, and hence they had not yet approved the release order. They had no idea of the accused having been released,” the constable told Mumbai Mirror.

When he asked police to check all the papers submitted by the two expert forgers’ lawyer, they found that both guarantors of the bail – Santosh Dongre and Sakharam Khude – were just as nonexistent as the constable and the senior inspector who signed their release documents, and that the police stamps were also fake.

“The verification order or the original bail order never reached us,” senior inspector Sarkar of Srinagar police station said. “We had no idea that he was being released as he was in judicial custody.”

As soon as they realized that they had been hoodwinked by two notorious criminals, police set out to look for the lawyer who had represented the duo and posted their bail. By this point, they were not surprised to learn that he could not be identified by the provided name, so was probably just as fake as the documents.

Police suspect that Mohammed Lukman Shaikh and Bashir Mulla also had help from inside the court, who made sure that the court order didn’t reach the police station. The investigation in this case is ongoing.

I think you’ll agree that this story seems more like the script of a Hollywood movie than real life.