Passport syndicate busted, 5 held

Police have busted a racket in which a gang supplied forged verification certificates and other documents to people seeking passport under the Tatkal scheme in the city. The passports had already been issued to those who were later caught with the forged documents.

The agents would arrange all sorts of forged documents ranging from birth certificates to verification certificates required for submission under the scheme.

The certificates were prepared using the letterheads and rubber stamps of officials of various government departments which include GAIL, DRDO and AAI.

The fraud came to light this year during the post-verification phase.
The passport officials discovered that five dozen candidates had been issued passports on forged documents.

While most of them had submitted fake verification certificates, some of their birth certificates and voter id cards too were found forged.
A case was registered with Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing and the candidates called for questioning.

“They said agents had charged them an extra amount for submitting the applications, facilitating the verification certificate and taking online appointments,” said police on Friday. Those candidates also revealed the identity of the agents during examination.

However, police could not immediately trace the agents as they had closed their rented offices and shifted their residence just prior to police registering the case.

“The passport office had already conducted an enquiry in this connection before approaching police. That had alerted the agents,” said police.

An electronic surveillance was launched to nab the suspects and finally Rakesh Kumar Dubey was arrested in Vasant Vihar. He led police to four others involved in the racket.
The gang was found to be having an office at Bhikaji Cama Place. A computer setup, used to submit online applications, was seized from there.

The voter ID cards, Aadhaar cards and school leaving certificates were being provided by Mujeebur Rehman who procured much of these from his hometown in Meerut.
The person who supplied birth certificates to the gang is also among the arrested.