The Faridkot police have launched a probe into a suspected forged-bail racket operating within the district courts after an accused secured bail by submitting the identity and property documents of a deceased person.The accused have been identified as Balwinder Singh, Manmohan Singh and Harpreet Singh, all residents of Balbir Basti here. The case was registered on the complaint of a Judicial Magistrate First Class, Faridkot.Police said Balwinder Singh assumed the identity of late Ranjit Singh, a landowner of Machaki Kalan village in the district, to stand as guarantor for an accused person, while Manmohan Singh and Harpreet Singh gave official testimony in court to vouch for the fake identity.The fraud came to light during a subsequent verification process, which revealed that the person whose property records had been submitted for the bail bond had died long before the court appearance.Taking serious note of the breach, police registered a case against the impersonator and the two witnesses. Investigating officer Gurdit Singh said further probe was under way to trace the mastermind behind the operation.Investigators suspect a larger organised network specialising in preparing fraudulent land and identity papers to help criminal suspects secure bail may be active in the region.The case comes close on the heels of a similar racket busted in neighbouring Moga, where CIA staff had arrested three persons on a tip-off.The gang had developed a systematic method to manipulate the bail process, preparing high-quality forged Aadhaar cards and other identification documents in the names of panchayat members, which were then presented in different courts to stand as sureties for accused persons, particularly those linked to criminal gangs.The gang reportedly charged between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per case for arranging bail through fraudulent means. Police had recovered 11 forged Aadhaar cards and several fake panchayat member identity cards in that case.In a separate case, Faridkot police had earlier booked four persons — Bhupinder Singh, Beant Singh, Tarsem Singh and Nand Lal — for allegedly using counterfeit documents to secure bail for criminals.That investigation followed a complaint by Gurmeet Kaur, a resident of Kotkapura, to the Punjab and Haryana High Court alleging that a syndicate was manipulating the bail process within the local legal ecosystem.The High Court had directed the district court to conduct a thorough inquiry, which found that the accused had systematically forged identity papers and property documents to stand as “ghost” sureties, allowing individuals with serious criminal backgrounds to walk free on bail.