The accused, Samir Das, allegedly posed as a law clerk at the Barasat court and sold fake documents to Bangladeshi citizens in lieu of a hefty fee.

Police sources said Samir Das also ran a grocery store that had a photocopy machine. While photocopying government-issued identity documents of locals, he would often make an extra copy. Thereafter, he would morph the picture on the document by replacing it with the photo of a Bangladeshi national. The fake document would then be used to get an Indian passport.

Sources further said that Samir Das also acted as a broker and provided rented accommodations to Bangladeshis by using fake documents.

It has been learnt that Samir Das gained quite a name in Bangladesh for being able to provide fake documents promptly. He allegedly charged Rs 15,000 for an Aadhaar card, Rs 10,000 for a voter card, Rs 12,000 for a birth certificate, and Rs 3,000 for a PAN card. According to police sources, at least two others arrested in the case, Kaushik Mondol and Chandan Chakraborty, have alleged that Samir Das lured them into the racket by offering them large sums of money.

Chakraborty reportedly used to bring clients to Das; and Mondol, who operated an Aadhaar centre in Barasat, helped in getting ID proof for Bangladeshi infiltrators.

When contacted, locals in Barasat’s Nabapally said Samir Das had owned the grocery shop for years and they never suspected he would be involved in such a racket. They, however, added that there was seemingly an unprecedented increase in Das’s income from 2020, as he turned his one-storied house into a four-storied one.

According to police sources, Samir Das allegedly received orders from his contacts across the border to prepare fake documents required to obtain an Indian passport.

They added that the roles of Samir Das’s two sons were also under scrutiny. One of whom is a doctor and the other is in the police force.

Earlier, nine people were arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection to the illegal passport racket. The accused include retired police inspector Abdul Hai, Dhiren Ghosh, Manoj Gupta, college student Ripan Biswas and his father Samaresh Biswas, Mukhtar Alam, Tarak Nath Sen, Dipankar Das, and one other person.

According to the police, the racket functioned in the guise of a travel agency and helped 73 foreign citizens, mostly Bangladeshis, to procure Indian passports