Passport racket: 4 more arrested, Nepalese connection under scanner

PTI, Oct 17, 2023, 8:53 PM IST

New Delhi: The CBI has arrested four middlemen who were part of a racket involving passport department officials that has allegedly issued more than 60 Indian passports to Nepalese citizens on the basis of forged documents and seized over Rs 46 lakh in cash, officials said on Tuesday.

A preliminary investigation has detected a ”Nepalese connection” in the racket, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Sachin Rai, Barun Singh Rathore, Uday Shankar Roy and Subrata Saha in connection with the case.

The federal agency had already arrested Goutam Kumar Saha, posted as the senior superintendent at the Passpot Laghu Seva Kendra (PLSK), Gangtok, and agent Dipu Chetri from a Siliguri hotel on Saturday while the latter was allegedly paying a bribe of Rs 1.9 lakh for the issuance of a passport.

During searches, the CBI seized cash amounting to more than Rs 46 lakh and a cache of forged documents used to get Indian passports, the officials said.

All the accused have been sent to the CBI’s custody till October 20.

The agency has alleged that Rai and Rathore used to apply for passports on behalf of Nepalese citizens using Indian identity documents, such as birth certificates, Aadhaar cards, voter cards and educational certificates.

Roy and Subrata Saha allegedly helped them forge the documents using their technical skills.

The CBI had named 16 government officials, mainly from the Regional Passport Office (RPO), Kolkata, who had issued more than 60 Indian passports to Nepalese citizens on the basis of forged documents in return for hefty bribes regularly paid by the agents.

These agents had allegedly manipulated every step of passport processing — preparing forged documents, police verification and the delivery of document — like a well-oiled machinery and were issuing Indian passports to Nepalese citizens, triggering a serious security issue, an official said.

The CBI busted the racket involving passport department officials and middlemen in West Bengal and Sikkim following raids at 50 locations in the two states on Saturday.

The agency has tracked a trail of illicit payments for the clearance of more than 60 such passport applications by officials of the Kolkata RPO and Gangtok PLSK on the basis of forged documents supplied by middlemen in just two months.

Rai and Rathore submitted the applications at the Post Office Passport Seva Kendra in Darjeeling and PLSK Gangtok.

Sachin Kumar, posted at the PLSK Gangtok, allegedly acted as a conduit between the agents and officials.

The agents handed the file numbers to Kumar for pursuing the applications and getting the passports issued, the officials said.

Kumar, in connivance with the officials of the PLSK Gangtok and RPO Kolkata, allegedly managed the process of scrutiny of documents, verification and personal appearance, they added.

Kolkata RPO officials are deputed to the Gangtok PLSK every month on a rotational basis to verify the applications.

The FIR alleged that Rai, Rathore and another agent, Ajay Choudhury, usually managed the police verification.

After the completion of the process, the passports were issued and dispatched by post.

”As the addresses given in the passport applications are false, the issued passports could not be delivered at these addresses to the individual applicants if sent by post,” the FIR said.

On the advice of Kumar, Rai and Rathore colluded with a postman posted at the Bagdogra Sub-Post Office, Pappu Salani, who handed the passports to the agents, instead of delivering those to the addresses mentioned in the dispatch, it alleged.

”The individual applicants are citizens of Nepal who later visit India and collect the Indian passports mischievously issued to them from Sachin Rai and Barun Singh Rathore,” the FIR alleged.

Once the process is completed, Kumar would collect the bribe from Rai and Rathore through middlemen Bharat Mann Limbu and Chandan Pradhan. The money was distributed among Kolkata RPO and Gangtok PLSK officials either through direct delivery or through bank transfer into the accounts of associates of the accused public servants, it stated.