Cops to grill passport verification officials to unearth scam trail
Times of India | 9 January 2025
12 Kolkata: The Kolkata Police special investigation team (SIT) probing the passport scam has sent letters to five passport offices in Bengal to question verification and granting officers there. These officers had allegedly vetted the applications of 73 passports, which were made on forged documents, as well as their police verification reports (PVRs) before issuing them.
Arrested Kolkata Police sub-inspector Abul Hai had prepared the police verification reports of 51 out of the 73 passports.
The summons coincided with the arrest of a grocery shop owner, Samir Das, on Wednesday for allegedly forging documents, including Aadhaar cards, PAN cards and voter ID cards. Das, went by the guide of a law clerk at the Barasat district court, is suspected to be involved in a fake passport racket. "Das had migrated from Bangladesh. He seems to be an agent who helped Bangladeshi illegal immigrants get ID cards, such as Aadhaar, voter ID cards and PAN cards," Barasat SP Pratiksha Jharkharia told TOI.
Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Barasat police station raided Das's house and detained him on Tuesday evening. He was later arrested. Das was also involved in making fake Aadhaar cards to help Bangladeshis obtain passports. Police said Das had two sons, one in the police force and the other a doctor. Cops are investigating if his cop son helped him create fake Aadhaar and voter ID cards for the passports.
"Das operated under the guise of a ‘muhuri'. He made fake Aadhaar and voter ID cards in exchange for money," said a senior Barasat district police officer. A senior official of West Bengal Law Clerk Association said Das was not associated with their organisation. "He is not a court clerk or a member of our association," the official said.
Investigators have learnt that Bangladeshi applicants spent Rs 2.5lakh to Rs 3 lakh to get passports, made with fake documents. The gang leaders, Manoj Gupta and Samaresh Biswas, both in cop net now, spent Rs 50 to Rs 60,000 from that money to pay other gang members. The rest of the money was pocketed by them, dividing them at a certain percentage. For Tarakanath Sen, a temporary worker at a passport service centre, the allocation per passport was Rs 5,000. Moktar Alam, who introduced Bangladeshi citizens to Samaresh and Manoj Gupta, would get Rs 2,500-Rs 4,000.