Kolkata/New Delhi: The CBI on Saturday arrested two persons including an official for their alleged involvement in issuing passports on the basis of forged documents, officials said on Saturday.
The agency on Saturday conducted searches at 50 locations in West Bengal and Sikkim and booked 24 people including government officials in the passport scam.
"We have busted a major passport racket in West Bengal and Sikkim and arrested a senior superintendent of Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) at Gangtok in Sikkim while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.90 lakh from another person. That person who is a passport agent was also arrested," the CBI said in a statement released Saturday evening.
A case was registered against 24 accused people including a Deputy Passport Officer in Kolkata and other public servants, it added.
During the search, CBI detectives also seized an amount of Rs 3.08 lakh in cash from the possession of the arrested PSLK official.
As part of the crackdown on the racket, searches were conducted at different places including Kolkata, Siliguri, Darjeeling, Alipurduar and Gangtok in Sikkim.
"Raids were conducted at the premises of accused people including public servants and a large number of incriminating documents related to identity proofs, issuance of forged passports were seized," an official said.
CBI detectives continued raids at the passport office in Kolkata, besides places in Salt Lake and Howrah.
The central agency conducted a surprise raid at the residence of a person at Uluberia in Howrah district in the wee hours of Saturday.
He was questioned for nearly six hours after which the CBI sleuths took him away with them, the officer said.
"The man is an employee of the passport office. We raided his residence in Uluberia this morning and grilled him," the officer told PTI.
The FIR names 24 individuals including 16 officials who were allegedly issuing passports on the basis of forged documents to ineligible persons, including non-residents, in return for bribes, they said.
Published 14 October 2023, 05:21 IST