Ex-police officer involved in Bengal’s fake passport racket, arrested

Kolkata, Jan 5 (PTI) A retired sub-inspector of Kolkata Police was arrested on the charge of clearing applications for passport without proper verification, an officer said on Sunday.

With the arrest of Abdul Hui, the number of people taken into custody for allegedly being involved in a racket rose to nine.

Hui allegedly played a key role in issuing several passports based on fake documents when he was attached to the Security Control Organisation(SCO) which carries out enquiry on applications received from the Regional Passport Office, the officer said.

Hui, who retired from service in October 2023, was arrested from his residence in Ashok Nagar area of North 24 Parganas district on early Saturday.

The official said that the arrested man, who had been remanded to police custody by a local court, was being questioned to ascertain his role in issuing many passports with fake documents in recent years.

“We are scanning his contact details to ascertain if he was part of the racket,” the officer added.

The detective department of Kolkata Police took up the investigation on the basis of a case registered at Bhowanipore Police Station on September 27, 2024.

According to preliminary investigations, Hui had cleared 50-odd passport applications which were later found to be fake. He was produced at Alipore Court on Saturday and was remanded to police custody till January 18.

Sources said that during course of investigation, the sleuths learnt that Hui used to charge Rs 25,000 for verification of each application with fake documents.

“We are hopeful of getting important leads in connection with the probe of the case on grilling Hui,” said a senior officer of the department.

The arrest triggered a political row on Sunday as the BJP accused the state administration of turning a blind eye to the proliferation of fake passport rackets abetted by a section of the police.

The ruling TMC, however, commended the role of state police to find out those involved in the racket while accusing the Centre of ignoring infiltration from across the border.

Union minister and BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar told reporters that the arrest of the retired SI was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Issuing passports to Bangladeshi infiltrators with fake documents like Aadhaar cards and fake voter IDs and fake ration cards had been continuing unchecked in West Bengal. We have repeatedly flagged the issue to the West Bengal government but Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to acknowledge the problem,” he said.

Countering him, TMC leader Kunal Ghosh said there had always been stray cases of few “dishonest officials adopting unscrupulous means and working against the state. During the Left Front regime, there had been cases of corrupt police officials involved in passport rackets. We have seen reports of passport rackets and police nexus in other states also.”

Ghosh further commended the role of state investigators in unearthing the racket and wondered “what is the role of central forces like BSF, who are tasked with guarding the border, to prevent infiltration”.