Fake passport racket kingpin, who ran travel agency in Kolkata, held
Times of India | 30 December 2024
123 Kolkata: One of the masterminds of the fake passport racket that has been operating since the past decade, allowing multiple illegal immigrants from Bangladesh to enter India and then leave for European nations posing as Indians, was arrested from North 24-Parganas by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police on Sunday. The accused, Manoj Gupta (40), who was operating under the guise of a travel agency in Sakherbazar on the Motilal Gupta Road, was produced before Alipore court. Gupta used to stay near Barisha's Silpara basketball ground, cops said.
"Manoj was arrested in the wee hours of Sunday from the residence of one Biswajit Das in Gaighata in North 24-Parganas. He controlled the racket of preparing passports using fake documents in lieu of money," said joint CP (Crime & Traffic), Rupesh Kumar. With this development, the total number of arrests in the fake passport probe stands at seven.
Gupta, claimed cops, went into hiding after his name cropped up in the probe and changed addresses. He last stayed at Gaighata a couple of days ago at the residence of his friend's elder sister. The woman claimed to cops that she does not know Manoj personally. Her brother told her that Manoj was presently homeless and needed shelter, cops said. The house from where Gupta was nabbed, however, belongs toBiswajit. But Biswajit didn't live there. Cops will also question Biswajit .
Earlier, Dipankar Das, who was an employee at Manoj's agency, was held. Manoj was earlier arrested once by Nadia police. Cops claimed Manoj offered "package deals" to Bangladeshis, charging them anything between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 12 lakh to procure forged Indian documents used for securing passports. Cops said the forged documents have been traced to Barasat, Madhyamgram and some linked to Duttapukur have been found to be non-existent.
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