Bengal fake passport racket: Accused retired cop cleared 52 forged applications
Kolkata: Abdul Hai, the retired assistant inspector who was earlier attached to the security control organisation of Kolkata Police who was arrested this year in connection with the fake passport racket in West Bengal, had cleared police verifications for at least 52 applications for fake passports reportedly against payment of cash.
The details of the involvement of the retired cop in the matter had been mentioned in the charge sheet filed by the cops in the matter to a lower court in Kolkata on Thursday.
Sources aware of the developments said that the charge sheet also contains the details of the financial gains that Hai made through these 52 police verification clearances where he was the on-ground enquiry or verification officer.
After the arrest of Hai in January this year, the role of five other verification officers attached to different police stations also came under the scanner of
the investigation officials.
However, their names are yet to figure in the charge sheet since the investigation against them is yet to be completed and might be included in any eventual supplementary charge sheet filed in the matter.
In the charge sheet, a total of 130 individuals have been named and out of this 120 are Bangladeshi residents and the remaining are Indian nationals.
The main charges against the Bangladeshi nationals are that they created fake Indian passports by furnishing forged documents and paying huge money. The charges against the accused Indian nationals are that they played the role of facilitators for arranging fake Indian identity documents including Indian passports for these illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The cops investigating the fake Indian identity documents rackets have identified a specific pattern in the operations of such rackets in this particular crime.
Any infiltrator illegally crossing over into the Indian territory, contacting the local agents, and showing willingness to pay hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents was 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 for making other identity documents. By virtue of the fake ration cards, other identification documents like EPIC, PAN, and AADHAAR cards are acquired. The last step is getting the fake passports on the basis of these other fake identity documents.