Passport racket: One more accused in cops net for forging identity-proof documents
Telegraph | 14 March 2025
A man who allegedly forged identity documents to obtain passports for foreigner nationals was arrested in Sealdah on Thursday.
The accused, Tridip Mondal, was detained by a team from Bhadreswar police station in Hooghly.
Mondal, a resident of Jyangra in Baguiati, was arrested near Sealdah station.
Mondal is the fourth person to be arrested by the Chandernagore commissionerate, under which Bhadreswar police station functions, as the part of a probe into an alleged racket that forged identity-proof documents to obtain passports for foreign nationals.
Mondal used to work as an agent for the three people previously arrested.
Kolkata Police have formed a special investigation team to probe such cases. During the probe, the police came across a racket that forged identity documents and helped people obtain passports even when they were not eligible.
A scrutiny by the passport office revealed that at least 240 passports had been issued across Bengal despite applicants submitting faulty documents.
On Thursday, the city police submitted a chargesheet in the fake passport case against 130 persons. The chargesheet states that 10 accused have been arrested and eight of them are in judicial custody.
The chargesheet says 120 alleged Bangladeshi nationals who had applied for passports with fake documents are absconding.