Passport kingpin worked from 1st flr as ground-floor resto served diners
Times of India | 31 December 2024
123 Kolkata: For the police, Manoj Gupta, a 40-year-old resident of Silpara is the mastermind of an international passport racket, a gang that even indulges in human trafficking.
For the locals of Silpara, Sakherbazar and Behala Chowrasta, he is a restaurant owner, who had been serving multi-cuisines at his Sakherbazar eatery for the past four years. While the ground floor of a four-storey building houses the eatery, his office is located on the floor above from where he used to allegedly run the racket.
Those who frequented the joint for its spicy tikkas said that the eatery had earned rave reviews in a short time. For others, he was the ‘muskil asan man' in case of a sudden travel plan, especially to Bangladesh, getting bookings done in a jiffy.
Gupta had set up parallel businesses to hide his primary operation — running a fake passport racket of which he was the head. The accused ran this racket for years, developing his network using numerous agents and sub-agents.
His network was so extensive that his plan to flee to Bangladesh almost materialised. A vehicle scheduled to rush him to the borders reached his Gaighata rented accommodation on Saturday midnight. However, the presence of cops stopped Gupta from leaving his residence.
Back in Kolkata, Gupta claimed before the court after his arrest that he ran a travel business. "While he stayed in Behala Silpara with his mother, he chose rented accommodations to run his businesses. The Sakherbazar tour and travel office, as also his restaurant, virtually became the hub of his business as he brought in Bangladeshi residents illegally, got them Indian documents, prepared inflated and fake bank accounts, and even readied them for visa interviews. Dozens of Bangladeshis went to Europe in this manner," said an officer.
Cops insisted that Gupta became extremely cautious ever since he was apprehended for the first time by the Gayeshpur police in Nadia some time ago. Gupta was released on bail after a few days and resumed his operations after changing his base. Questions have arisen as to why Gupta's activities were not monitored after his initial arrest in the fake documents case.
The police claim that Gupta created each fake document for as little as Rs 3,000-5,000. But the accused's lawyer argued that Manoj Gupta has a tour and travel business, and the very nature of his job is to assist travellers. Gupta's mother claimed he was always aspirational even though he left studies after class 8. She claimed she heard from others about her son's illegal activities. She told the media on Monday that she repeatedly advised him to leave this work and manage his father's shop.
The police have already claimed in court that this gang, by sending Bangladeshis abroad illegally, could also have been running an immoral trafficking racket.
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