Bengal cops to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators making foreign trips with fake Indian passports
Kolkata: The investigating officials of Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police probing the rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators crossing over to the state, are conducting parallel probes to track such illegal infiltrators who are making frequent foreign visits.
Sources in the city police said that so far at least 40 such Indian passports with addresses in West Bengal have been identified, which have multiple visa entries to some foreign countries. However, cross-checking of the addresses mentioned in these passports revealed that those were fake ones and the addresses were either owned or rented by someone else for a long time. In certain cases, the addresses mentioned in the passports do not have any existence at all.
“Such rackets engaged in the creation of fake Indian identity documents, including Indian passports have their tentacles spread mainly in the districts of West Bengal having international borders with Bangladesh, both land and coastal, Some of them even have their own agents, network in Bangladesh, whose task is to identify citizens there eager to come to India and help them in illegally crossing the borders against hefty commissions,” said a senior officer of state police who did not want to named.
So far, Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police have arrested nine persons in connection with the fake Indian passport rackets.
The latest arrest in the matter was Abdul Hai, a retired sub-inspector of police attached to Kolkata Police. During the last few years of his services, he was mainly engaged in the task of police verification for new passport applicants.
The investigating officials have identified a pattern in the operations of such rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Any infiltrator illegally crossing over to Indian territory, contacting the local agents and showing willingness to pay hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents, are first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal. Thereafter, the agents arrange for fake ration cards for them, which is the first step to making other identity documents. With these fake ration cards, other identification documents like EPIC, PAN, and Aadhaar cards are acquired. The last step is getting the fake passports based on these other fake identity documents.