Fake passport case: ED raids eight places in Bengal

Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Tuesday conducted raids at eight places in West Bengal in connection with the money laundering in the fake passports case.

The raids and search operations were conducted in Beck Bagan in South Kolkata, Birati in North 24 Parganas district, and Gede in Nadia district of West Bengal.

Sources said that the raids and search operations were conducted in areas where the criminals used to arrange fake Indian passports for Bangladeshi infiltrators against hefty payments.

Last month, Kolkata Police filed a charge sheet in the case at a lower court in Kolkata, where it was mentioned that of the 130 individuals mentioned 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 money to secure fake Indian passports.

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

Earlier, 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 inquiry or verification officer.

The cops investigating the fake Indian identity documents rackets have identified a specific pattern in the operations of such rackets in this particular chain of crime.

Any infiltrator crossing over to the Indian territory, contacting the local agents, and showing willingness to pay out hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents is first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal, the police said.

Thereafter, the agents arrange for  for them, which is the first step for making other identity documents. With the 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 forged documents, the police added.

(With inputs from IANS)