Major fake passport racket busted: 400 Bangladeshis got Indian IDs for ₹2 crore

Kolkata (The Uttam Hindu) – A major racket has been uncovered in West Bengal, involving the issuance of fake passports for illegal Bangladeshi citizens by posing as Indians. An investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has so far identified more than 400 Bangladeshi infiltrators who obtained Indian passports using fraudulent documents.

The ED has obtained this information from the Regional Passport Office in Kolkata and the entire network is now suspected to have roots extending across the border.

The Pakistan connection also surfaced.

The ED recently arrested Indubhushan Halder, a key operator of the fake passport racket operating in Chakdaha town of Nadia district. He is said to be a close associate of Pakistani national Azad Malik, who was arrested earlier this year in the same case. He first became a citizen of Bangladesh using fake identity cards and later entered India and started obtaining passports using Indian documents. Malik operated a hawala and fake passport network from a rented house in Kolkata. During interrogation, he named Indubhushan as his associate.

Transactions worth over 2 crore rupees and forgery of 300 passports

According to ED sources, Indubhushan illegally obtained passports for over 300 Bangladeshis. The investigation has also revealed financial transactions worth over 2 crore rupees. Indubhushan rented a cyber cafe to run this racket and prepared passport applications using fake documents. He was produced before a Kolkata court and sent to judicial custody until October 27.

'Indian passport' was made for five lakh rupees.

ED investigation has revealed that Rs 5 lakh was charged for each fake passport. For this, first Aadhar and PAN cards were made in the name of Bangladeshi citizens, then the names were added to the voter list, and finally the passport was prepared on the basis of these fake identity cards. The complicity of some employees of the postal department has also come to light in this entire game, who used to hand over the documents directly to the racket operators during the delivery of the passport.

The ED

is now investigating the masterminds of this entire network and the possibility of government complicity. The agency believes the racket extends not only to Bangladesh but also to Pakistan and Nepal, and that several local agents and officials may be involved.