A resident of Duttapukur in North 24-Parganas has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the racket that obtained passports for ineligible candidates using forged documents.
Moktar Alam, 42, a resident of Chhoto Jagulia in Duttapukur, was arrested from his home on Wednesday morning.
Officers of Kolkata Police who made the arrest said Alam was one of the kingpins who operated in the Nadia-Bongaon belt, which shares the border with Bangladesh.
“He would arrange candidates — mostly Bangladeshis — and help them obtain Indian passports. A team of men would act under Alam’s instructions,” the officer said.
The special investigation team of Kolkata Police has arrested several persons in connection with the racket.
The Calcutta passport office raised the alarm when they found that around 240 passports had been issued based on faulty documents.
During internal scrutiny, the passport office came across discrepancies in the identity documents submitted with the applications for the 240 passports. The police had apparently failed to identify the faulty documents.
In another 160-odd applications, faulty documents were spotted in time and the passports were not issued.
The police said Alam had been arrested by the Chinsurah police in 2021.
Officers said ATM cards and original PAN cards were seized from Alam.
All the 240-odd applications that were found to be faulty were submitted through post office Passport Seva Kendras across the state.
The arrested persons include post office officials and touts.