Kolkata: A temporary postal department staffer — the fifth overall arrest in a fake passport case and the third accused in the case with links to Indian postal services — was recently arrested by Kolkata Police SIT, proving that certain Bangladeshis might have posed as Indians and travelled to European nations, like France and Italy.
"On Tuesday, we arrested Dipankar Das from his Becharam Chatterjee Road residence based on evidence and questioning of the fake passport gang members. Based on Das's statement, our team found, prima facie, incriminating articles in his possession. Thereafter, being led by him, another raid was conducted at the office of his accomplice on Barisha's Motilal Gupta Road, from where we recovered other incriminating articles. So far, preliminary enquiry has revealed Das is responsible for manufacturing fake official documents, including computers and fake seals of SBI, Bank of India, and Indian Bank. We also recovered photocopies of 36 Indian passports along with Schengen and UK visas, which were seized," said joint CP (crime and traffic) Rupesh Kumar. The accused has been sent to eight days' police custody.
According to police sources, Das was the closest ally of the fake passport gang's mastermind, Samaresh Biswas, and his son, Ripon. He was responsible for creating the fake documents. The others arrested acted as agents. Das studied at Jadavpur University. In addition to creating fake documents, he also collected the fake passports from the post office.
"During investigation, requisitions were sent to different authorities, like voter card issuing authorities, banks, schools, West Board of Secondary Education, and municipalities, to ascertain the authenticity of the documents produced by the applicants to get passports. Some reports were received and analysed, and that is how we identified the accused," said Kumar.
According to police, in the past few months, members of a fake passport ring created 121 passports by falsely presenting various Bangladeshi citizens as Indian. Of these, 73 passports were issued by the regional passport authorities while 48 were pending creation and have now been halted. Investigators from Lalbazar claim that these passports were made in the names of illegal migrants from Bangladesh, who are now believed to be living in France or Italy under Indian identities.
Alipore police court's public prosecutor Saurin Ghoshal said police are investigating if verification was conducted for the 121 passports and will take action if negligence is established.
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