Fresh ED raids in Nadia in Bengal fake passport case

Kolkata, April 17 (IANS) Officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have been conducting fresh raids and search operations since Thursday morning at Chakdaha in the Nadia district of West Bengal.

The ED raids have been conducted in connection with an investigation in the money laundering angle in a major fake Indian passport racket operating in West Bengal.

Those running the racket in the state provide forged papers and passports to illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators in India.

Although details of the fresh raids and search operations are yet to be made available, sources aware of the development said that the operations are at the residence of a close associate of two kingpins of the rackets, Alok Nath and Azad Mullick, who had been arrested earlier this week by the ED officials.

However, the ED officials, so far, are tight-lipped about the identity of the persons at whose residence at Chakdaha the raid and search operations are continuing since Thursday morning.

Nath was arrested on Tuesday evening from his office at Gede in Nadia district, which is very close to the International Border with Bangladesh.

On the other hand, Mullick, a Bangladeshi resident was arrested on the same night by the central agency officials from his rented accommodation near Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, which is located on the northern outskirts of Kolkata.

Mullick was not only residing in Kolkata after possessing fake Indian identity documents including an Indian passport, but was also operating a hawala racket from his residence.

According to the findings of the ED, he had transferred a total amount of Rs 2.62 crore during the last year from India to Bangladesh using the Hawala route.

Last month, Kolkata Police filed a charge sheet in the case of the forged passport scam at a lower court in Kolkata, where it was mentioned that of the 130 individuals named in the document, 120 are Bangladeshi residents and the remaining are Indian nationals.

The main charges against the Bangladeshi nationals are that they paid huge amounts of money to secure fake Indian passports.

The charges against the accused Indian nationals are that they played the roles of facilitators for arranging fake Indian identity documents, including Indian passports, for these Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Earlier, Kolkata Police arrested Abdul Hai, a retired Assistant Sub-Inspector of the city police. The details of Hai's involvement in the matter were also mentioned in the charge sheet.

It contained details of Hai's financial gain through these 52 police verification clearances, where he was the on-ground enquiry or verification officer.

--IANS

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