Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS) The role of the five “verification and granting” officers attached to Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in the state capital and the other five "verification officers” attached to different police stations in various divisions of Kolkata Police are under the scanner of the sleuths investigating the fake passport rackets in West Bengal.

The ten officers were arranging fake Indian passports for illegal infiltrators from neighbouring Bangladesh.

Since December 15 last year, the investigating officers have so far arrested nine people in this connection, the latest being Abdul Hai, a retired sub-inspector of Kolkata Police.

Hai during the last few years of his service was mainly engaged in the task of police verification for the new passport applicants.

Sources aware of the development said that during the interrogation of Hai, the investigating officers came to know of the involvement of these five 'PSK-level verification & granting' officers and five 'PS-level verification' officers.

The investigating officers in the matter, sources said, have secured the details of the 52 new passports whose verifications were conducted by Hai. A probe is on now to check how many of those 52 are genuine and how many are fake.

The officials believe that Hai also acted as one of the principal intermediaries between these fake passport rackets and the police stations.

Recently, both West Bengal and Kolkata Police have started the process of investigation against their colleagues of lackadaisical "police verification" processes resulting in the issuance of fake Indian passports to Bangladeshi infiltrators.

The investigation started after a city court recently directed investigating officials to probe their colleagues in relevant police stations. The main charges against a section of cops engaged in the task of "police verification" for new passport applicants are that they did not physically make spot visits to the residences of certain applicants before submitting the clearance report on this count.

The investigating officials have identified a pattern in the operations of such rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for the illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Any infiltrator illegally crossing over to the Indian territory, contacting the local agents and showing willingness to pay out hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents are first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal.

Thereafter, the agents arrange for fake ration cards for them which are the first step for making other identity documents. Under 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 fake identity documents.

Courtesy Media Group: IANS

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