Last Year, Kolkata Police busted racket that used Indian passports to traffic Bangladeshis; over 400 passports under scanner

Over 20,000 passport applications are awaiting clearance across 72 police stations after Kolkata Police started birth certificate verification in a bid to stop issuance of passports with forged documents, an officer said.

According to the officer, over 400 passports are currently under scanner after a trafficking racket helping Bangladeshis obtain Indian passports by supplying them with forged identity documents was busted last year.

A complaint lodged by the Regional Passport Office prompted the Kolkata Police to chalk out a new standard operating procedure, with its own algorithm, software and database for passport verification.

“The passport offices, which come under the Ministry of External Affairs, verify biometrics, identity, address and educational qualification of the applicant before issuing a passport. The police verify the applicant’s criminal antecedent and citizenship proof. Earlier, the officers used to verify the documents and grant clearance based on their observations. But after a series of cases with forged birth certificates came to light, we are sending all the documents to the issuing bodies,” a senior police officer said.

“When an applicant submits a birth certificate, we are now verifying it with local bodies like municipal corporations and panchayats that issue them and giving our clearance only after the verifications. On an average, the local bodies take two to three weeks which is leading to a huge number of pending applications. As of now, more than 20,000 passports are awaiting clearance,” he added.

“However, we are working on making algorithms and databases. Nowadays, an applicant fears police verification but after our software application starts, an applicant will get details of documents which he or she has to produce before the police. We have already started this experiment in the South Suburban Division (SSD) and South East Division (SED) division of Kolkata police as they get the maximum number of applications. Once it is regularised, the process of passport issuance or renewal will be streamlined,” the officer said.

According to police sources, as of now, nine people, including contractual post office employees and a former cop, have been arrested from border districts. Police have busted a racket who have been helping individuals to obtain Indian passports using forged documents. These individuals primarily used these passports to travel to France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Canada. Court documents submitted by the police suggest a “criminal conspiracy between the accused, unidentified individuals”, sources said.

As per police’s submission in the court, “The investigation has revealed that the accused were operating an international human trafficking ring. They were recruiting illegal immigrants and facilitating their travel to European countries by providing them with fraudulently obtained Indian passports.”

The probe has also shown that apart from birth certificates, forged Indian documents like Aadhar card, PAN card, and voter ID card were issued to Bangladeshi nationals by the accused. As per police, Gautam Sardar, Sk. Habibur Rahaman and Badal Sahani were arrested last year in connection with forged birth certificates and passport racket case. The birth certificate which Sahani had submitted was sent to South 24 Parganas district administration for verification and was found to be forged.

Several similar cases have been reported in Kolkata since, sources said. According to police, Sardar issued more than 3,500 fake birth certificates from Pathankhali gram panchayat in the district over the last couple of years. All three have been granted bail, police said.