The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Original' passport racket unearthed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 25, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Original' passport racket unearthed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 24. People seeking passports at any cost, mostly from Punjab, often find themselves being cheated by those running fake passport rackets. But, if they happen to know "the right people", they can get an "original" passport at the same cost. Helping them in such a deal would be the passport department officials, the touts and also the Delhi police personnel.

A couple of cases of passport department frauds -- carried out in connivance with the touts and some junior Delhi police officials -- which were detected by the Central Bureau of Investigation during their drive conducted this past September exposed the nexus quite clearly.

Of a total of 12 cases of passport frauds registered all across the country during the drive, five were registered in the Capital. Two superintendents and two clerks of the regional passport office (RPO) were involved in these cases. While investigating the role of the passport officials, one of whom has been arrested so far, the CBI also found that the role of some junior Delhi police officials was suspect.

In the first case, Afghan refugees were allegedly being allowed to have Indian passport and were shown to be bona fide citizens of the country living in and around the Capital. While the agency did not officially name any personnel or officer, it said officials up to the level of the Assistant Commissioners of Police were under the scanner. These Afghan refugees were flying out and coming into the country frequently using the fake passport and not a single case was detected.

The second racket was the one in which people were being issued passports obtained by applying for additional booklet in the name of genuine passport holders. The accused used to replace the photograph of the original passport holder with that of his client and it was cleared through the passport office. A travel agency employee and a passport department official were arrested in this case. Again, the CBI has not officially named any Delhi policemen in the case.

Interestingly though, as per existing rules, police verification is required for issuing an additional booklet for the genuine passport holder. In this case, the area police seemed to have overlooked the fact that two persons were holding different passports with the same particulars. However, one of the possibilities in such rackets could be that passport officials and the travel agency employee changed the photograph after obtaining a favourable verification report for additional booklet to be issued.

The revelation comes at a time when the government has decided to do away with the requirement of police verification for additional booklets, provided the passport holder has not changed his name and address.

Meanwhile, the agency will also be looking into the financial aspect of such rackets. In both the cases, the agents had charged anywhere between Rs. 4 lakhs and Rs. 5 lakhs from the passport seekers. Not surprisingly, most of the victims were from villages of Punjab where people are ready to put everything at stake to go to countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi