Seventh arrested in Bengal fake passport racket case, helped illegal Bangladeshi nationals
Kolkata: The Kolkata Police, on Sunday, arrested a man in connection with a racket operating out of West Bengal which was engaged in arranging fake Indian identity documents, including passports, for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators entering India through the porous borders of the state.
This is the seventh arrest from the state made in the case. The arrested agent has been identified as Manoj Gupta. He had been arrested from his rented accommodation in the Chandpara area under the Gaighata Police station in North 24 Parganas district.
He will be presented at a court in Kolkata on Sunday and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody.
City police insiders said that Gupta had connections with a fake travel agency operating from Behala in the southern outskirts of Kolkata which was actually engaged in a racket for arranging fake Indian identity for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The main role of Gupta, city police insiders said, was to act as the middleman between the fake travel agency operators and those illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators willing to pay hefty amounts to get fake Indian identity documents for them.
Sources said that from the hard disc of the personal computer at Gupta’s residence several incriminating documents regarding the creation of the fake Indian documents have been seized by the investigating officials.
Incidentally, Dipankar Das, who was arrested earlier by the city police in this connection, also had connections with the same travel agency operating from Behala.
Since December 15, the West Bengal Police have arrested seven persons in connection with a fake passport racket.
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 the Indian territory, contacting the local agents and showing willingness to pay out 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 are 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.