Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

Passport racket busted, 3 held

HYDERABAD: A racket of securing passports by presenting fake documents was busted by the city police with the arrest of three persons on Friday.

The arrested, Khaleelullah Baig, Mohd. Jahangir and Ibrahim Khan, named an employee of the Regional Passport Office, Hyderabad, who allegedly aided and abetted them in organising the racket, the police said.

“We’re yet to pick up that employee and ascertain if he alone is connected or his colleagues are also involved,” Commissioner’s Task Force DCP V.B. Kamalasan Reddy told The Hindu. According to the DCP, under Tatkal scheme, the authorities were issuing passports within five days of submitting the application. They would send the file to police department for verification of the applicant’s credentials but issue the passport if any of the three out of the 14 listed documents were shown as identity proof.

The arrested persons, who were working as passport agents, would present applications of their customers along with forged documents like ration cards, voter ID cards, educational certificates and electricity bills. “The passport office employee would deliberately delay sending the file to Police Department for verification,” the DCP said. As per rules, the authorities would issue passport within five days of receiving the application though the police clearance was pending. The trio secured passports for at least 20 persons, including two facing serious criminal charges. One of them was Qaiser, whose arrest helped the Task Force officials unearth the racket. In some cases, even if the Police Department sent report that the applicant’s address and credentials were doubtful or false, the passport office employee kept it in abeyance and thus helped the agents.

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