Seventh Individual Captured in Bengal Forged Passport Scam, Assisted Illegal Bangladeshi Nationals
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Kolkata, Dec 29 (NationPress) On Sunday, the Kolkata Police took into custody a man involved in a scheme operating out of West Bengal that was responsible for providing counterfeit Indian identity documents, such as passports, to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants entering India via the state's porous borders.
This marks the seventh individual arrested in this investigation. The apprehended agent has been named Manoj Gupta, who was detained at his rented residence located in the Chandpara area under the Gaighata Police jurisdiction in North 24 Parganas district.
Gupta is scheduled to appear in a Kolkata court on Sunday where the public prosecutor will request his police custody.
According to sources within the city police, Gupta had affiliations with a fraudulent travel agency based in Behala, a southern suburb of Kolkata, which was actively involved in the operation of providing fake Indian identities to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.
Insiders revealed that Gupta primarily functioned as a middleman between the operators of the counterfeit travel agency and illegal Bangladeshi immigrants willing to pay substantial sums for fake Indian identity documents.
Authorities have reportedly seized numerous incriminating documents from the hard drive of Gupta’s personal computer, relating to the fabrication of these counterfeit Indian documents.
Interestingly, Dipankar Das, who was previously arrested by city police in connection with this case, also had ties to the same travel agency operating from Behala.
Since December 15, the West Bengal Police has apprehended a total of seven individuals tied to this forged passport operation.
Investigators have identified a consistent pattern in the methods of these rackets, which facilitate the issuance of fake Indian passports to illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Any infiltrator crossing into Indian territory connects with local agents, expressing their willingness to pay large sums for counterfeit Indian identity documents. Initially, they are provided with safe havens in various villages along the borders with Bangladesh, both land and coastal.
Subsequently, the agents procure fake ration cards, which serve as the foundation for generating other identity documents. With these fake ration cards, additional identification documents like EPIC, PAN, and Aadhaar cards can be obtained. The final step involves acquiring fake passports using these other fraudulent identity documents.
