It has now been learnt that the Pune-based farm-owner had forged the matriculation certificate of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) to get a passport from Patna in 1997.
The matter came to light after the police investigated the photocopies attached to the passport application form of Hasan Ali submitted in 1997.
One of the certificates, matriculation from Bihar Board, was sent to the BSEB for verification, but it turned out to be fake. “After verification, we found it was a forged certificate, not issued by the Bihar School Examination Board,” said its chairman AKP Yadav in Patna.
The Regional Passport Office (RPO) here was asked by the investigators to submit documents related to issuance of his passport. Another photocopy attached was the xerox of a ration card, which, police sources say, could easily be forged.
Earlier, the police had found that Ali’s residential address in Alamganj locality in Patna was also fake.
The police are now looking into the role of the then officer-in-charge of Alamganj police station RK Karn, on whose behest the passport verification was carried out.
The investigating team may also quiz some officials of RPO as to how the stud-farm owner was issued passport in a short span of seven days when tatkal passport scheme was not in place.
The tatkal scheme came into effect in 1999, Ali applied for passport on April 3, 1997 and received it within seven days, on April 10, 1997.