The Hindu : New Delhi News : Passport racket smashed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 05, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Passport racket smashed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 4. Nine people, including an under-suspension Delhi Police constable and two employees of two international airline agencies, have been arrested by the Indira Gandhi International Airport police here on charges of running a major human trafficking-cum-passport racket through which they were allegedly sending people aboard on forged travel documents. On September 4 night, Immigration officers intercepted a person boarding a flight to Toronto on suspicion that he was travelling on fake documents. He was handed over to the airport police.

While he possessed a passport bearing a Canadian visa issued in the name of Karandeep Sandhu, during interrogation he revealed that he was Jaskaran Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur in Punjab. He further disclosed that his travel documents were arranged by an agent named Baljinder Singh against payment of Rs. 1.8 lakhs.

Investigations revealed that a notorious travel agent from Punjab, Charanjit Singh alias Tony, and his accomplice, Jarnail Singh, had brought Jaskaran to the airport in the last week of August to make arrangements for his safe transportation to Toronto. There they met one Ishwar Singh, who later turned out to be a Delhi police constable placed under suspension after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) mounted raid at his residence around two years ago. Ishwar identified himself as an Immigration officer and assured that he would manage Jaskaran's immigration clearance.

Ishwar allegedly called in Bhagirath Meena, the customer service officer of Air India, who allegedly said he would take the passenger inside the aircraft without any checking. Another person, Pal Singh Thakur, reportedly the security manager of Turkmenistan Airlines, took the responsibility of taking Jaskaran inside the airport premises. However, before Jaskaran could board the airplane, the Immigration officials intercepted him.

At his instance, the police arrested another agent, Jarnail Singh, from the airport the next morning. Ishwar and Bhagirath, who had allegedly arranged boarding card for Jaskaran, were arrested on September 7. The police then arrested Pal Singh for allegedly taking Jaskaran to the transit hall through the trolley gate of the international airport.

On the basis of their interrogation, a team went to Jalandhar and arrested Tony and at his instance arrested another agent, Saurabh Kumar, for faking the visa found in Jaskaran's forged passport. Further investigations led the police to yet another agent, Manjeet Singh, from whom they recovered eight passports including the one purportedly issued by Swedish authorities. He revealed that he worked as a carrier and had procured his passport from Kamal from Jalandhar. While the police impounded Manjeet's Tata Indica car, they also arrested Kamal from a Paharganj Hotel on October 28.

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