One more arrested in connection with fake passport racket in Bengal, total rises to 6

Kolkata, Dec 25 The West Bengal Police on Wednesday arrested one more person in connection with the racket of arranging fake Indian passports for Bangladeshi infiltrators entering Indian territory through the state's porous borders, both land and coastal.

The arrested person, identified as Mokhtar Alam, was arrested from his residence at Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas district.

Several incriminating documents, including fake PAN cards and bank ATM cards, have been seized from his possession.

With Alam’s arrest, the total number of arrests in connection with the fake passport rackets from different pockets in the state during the last 10 days has increased to six.

A senior official of the state police said that the investigating officials got information about Alam’s involvement in the racket by interrogating the five arrested earlier in connection with the fake passport racket scam.

Alam had prior criminal antecedents and he had been arrested a number of times in the past because of his involvement in illegal and anti-social activities. The investigating officials expect to secure information about others involved in the racket by interrogating him.

They have identified a pattern in the operations of such rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for the 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 different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state.

Thereafter, the agents first arrange for fake ration cards for them which is the first step for making other identity documents. By virtue of these, other identification documents like EPIC, PAN, and Aadhaar cards are arranged. The last step is getting the fake passports on the basis of the other fake identity documents.

Source: IANS