The Hindu : Front Page : Fahad's fake passport: SIT arrests ASI, postman

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 07, 2006
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Fahad's fake passport: SIT arrests ASI, postman

Biju Govind

SIT investigating connections of Mohammed Fahad in Kozhikode

Kozhikode: An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of police and a postman were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the city police on Monday on charges of helping the Pakistani national and alleged Al-Badr militant Mohammed Fahad to secure a fake passport from the Kozhikode Passport Office.

Mohammed Ali, ASI, attached to the Vazhakkad police station in Malappuram district, had conducted the police verification for Fahad, who was arrested by the Karnataka Police along with another militant Mohammed Ali Hussain on October 27 for plotting to attack the Vikasa Soudha in Bangalore and the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore.

The police officer had carried out the passport verification when he was a head constable at the Special Branch office in Malappuram district in June. He is now under suspension. Abdul Latheef, postman of Kavannur post office in Malappuram district, had delivered the passport in a fake address to a woman employed in one of the travel agencies on October 5. The Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court at Kunnamangalam remanded both the accused to judicial custody for 14 days.

The SIT, led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime Detachment Cell) V. Chandran, arrested the accused under various Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Indian Passport Act and Foreigner's Act.

The team was constituted to probe the connections of Fahad in Kozhikode since his father Abdulla Koya was a native of the city and had migrated to Pakistan during the Indo-Pak War. His first wife resides at Kappad. Fahad and his father have been to Kozhikode on several occasions.

Police sleuths have taken into custody several persons, including those running travel agencies in Malappuram district. Fahad had applied for passport in the name of Mohammed Koya on June 12. The police verification was done on June 30. His plan was to establish a base in Kozhikode, start a business in the city and acquire plots at Kappad and Balussery, and create an Al-Badr network through some fundamentalist outfits in the State.

The case of Fahad procuring a fake passport exposes the chinks in the armour of the Special Branch wing of the State police conducting passport verifications in north Kerala. The Kozhikode Passport Office, catering to six districts in north Kerala and Mahe, had processed 2.5 lakh passports in 2005. Of this, 21 per cent of the applicants were from Kozhikode, 23 per cent from Malappuram, and 20 per cent from Kannur. Kozhikode is the second passport office in the country in terms of volume of applications handled. In August, Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed inaugurated a passport office in Malappuram to cater to that district as well as Palakkad district.

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

Front Page