Boom in fake passport business during Bangladesh crisis, says Kolkata cops

Kolkata: The investigation into the fake passport racket has revealed that the gang ‘increased its business' using no less than a thousand fake documents between Aug and Nov, the period when Bangladesh saw a massive political upheaval with Sheikh Hasina's ouster. Preliminary investigations revealed that 73 people have already travelled abroad with these fake passports. The police have contacted the relevant authorities to gather information about them. The police said accused, Dipak Mondal, who was working at the Panchasayar post office, received original passports for delivery to the actual applicants. However, Mondal handed these passports to gang leaders and got them to put fake signatures on the delivery sheets. The cops have seized such delivery sheets. During the interrogation of the mastermind, Samaresh Biswas, several passport service centres from these Howrah and Hooghly districtswere mentioned along with North 24 Parganas and Kolkata, sources said. "Several passport service centres, including Amta in Howrah and Arambagh in Hooghly, are under the scrutiny of Kolkata Police," said an officer.The investigation of the passport fraud case – so far being conducted by a SIT – will now be led by the detective department (DD) of Kolkata Police. "We need the experienced DD sleuths to lead the SIT," said an officer. The police initially believe that Samaresh and his associates created over three thousand fake passports in Kolkata alone using forged documents. Additionally, a large number of fake passports were produced in the districts outside Kolkata using the same method.The agents primarily maintained connections with Bangladeshi infiltrators and facilitated their contact with Samaresh and his associate Ripon, cops said.Investigators are examining why police verification of applicants did not occur .The same Aadhaar number was used with fake documents by changing the name and photo for making the fake passports, police said. The accused, Samaresh, primarily revealed during interrogation that he had connections with several post offices employees in Basirhat, Bongaon, Nadia, Hooghly, and Howrah.
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