3 min readMumbaiMay 22, 2026 12:04 AM IST
A fresh inquiry by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) vigilance department has found that supporting documents linked to 10,226 allegedly fake birth certificates issued to illegal foreign nationals are missing, deepening concerns over irregularities in the civic administration.
The development comes weeks after an internal probe revealed that 87,347 fake birth certificates had been issued between 2024 and 2026. Civic officials said the missing records include government-approved identity documents required for the issuance of birth certificates.
Earlier this month, the Mumbai Police constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged racket. Alongside the police investigation, the BMC vigilance department has also begun scrutinising records linked to the certificates.
“As part of the scrutiny, we are tracing the supporting documents of each of the 87,000 fake birth certificates that were issued by BMC to various beneficiaries. During the process, it has been found out that supporting documents of 10,000 such certificates couldn’t be found and for the past three weeks the documents have remained untraceable,” an official told The Indian Express on Thursday.
Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya, who has repeatedly flagged the issue with the civic administration, said the BMC had shared the data with him.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Somaiya said the certificates issued without supporting documents were largely traced to the L ward (Kurla), E ward (Byculla), M East ward (Govandi) and K North ward (Jogeshwari) offices.
“All these certificates were issued from the SAP based software system, which the BMC was using illegally despite the Civil Registration System (CRS) being in function. The fact that 10,000 certificates were issued without any valid document clearly shows that a section of the administration was hand in glove with this issue. The investigation is currently ongoing and in the days to come the numbers are only going to increase,” Somaiya said.
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According to civic records, of the 87,347 allegedly forged certificates issued through the SAP system, 30,507 were generated in 2024, 49,705 in 2025 and 7,135 in 2026. In contrast, only 33,700 certificates were issued through the officially approved CRS system during the same period.
A senior civic official, however, said the BMC had continued operating both systems simultaneously because the CRS platform was facing technical glitches at the time.
The issue first came under the spotlight on February 13, when Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde announced action against illegal infiltrators in the city and ordered a probe into the fake birth certificate allegations following complaints by Somaiya.
Officials said the bulk of the certificates were issued by two former Medical Officers of Health posted in the M East ward, covering Govandi and Deonar, against whom police complaints have now been registered.
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The M East ward area, along with Malvani in Malad, has previously come under scrutiny over allegations of sheltering illegal immigrants.
