Two Zirakpur policemen who were arrested in a fake passport racket over the past week reportedly forged travel documents for five gangsters, including Raju, alias, Raju Basodi from Haryana, and more than 40 others with criminal links, investigations have revealed.
What was initially thought to be a minor operation is now turning out to be a major criminal scam, say police officials interrogating head constable Sukhwant Singh and constable Rajinder Singh, both posted at Zirakpur and assigned passport verification duties.
They were dismissed from service after their arrests through the last week.
“The scam appears to be huge as they (the policemen) even made the passports of five gangsters and we have already arrested one in this regard. All 41 passports were made of persons with a criminal background,” said Satinder Singh, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Mohali.
False name on passport
“We have arrested one dreaded gangster of Haryana, Raju Basodi, whose passport was registered under the false name of Gurveer Singh. One passport was made for Ludhiana gangster Gopi Lamber and another for Ashish Kumar (under the name of Sandeep Singh of Kapurthala), who is facing a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act,” said Manjit Singh, deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Mohali, on Sunday.
Investigations were continuing to check how payments were made to the passport office and likelihood of passport officials being involved in the racket, the DSP added.
{{/usCountry}}Investigations were continuing to check how payments were made to the passport office and likelihood of passport officials being involved in the racket, the DSP added.
{{/usCountry}}Mastermind took Rs 30,000 for a passport
Also nabbed in the racket is Raman Kumar, a resident of Dera Bassi and the mastermind behind the operation. He used to charge Rs 30,000 for forging documents for the passports and pay Rs 15,000 to the policemen in question, investigators said.
Using addresses of locked or abandoned flats, he forged documents, including Aadhaar cards, voter cards and other certificates for both Rajinder and Sukhwant.
The fact that he used to be a property dealer before switching to passport services with an office in Ambala helped Raman, police officials said.
Rajinder was the first to be arrested on November 3 for forging documents to make the passport of one Sarabjeet Singh, against whom several cases were already registered. This was followed by arrests of Sukhwant and Raman.
Passports to be cancelled
Police will be writing to the passport office for cancellation of all fake passports and cases registered against people holding the documents.
A case has already been registered against the two policemen and Raman Kumar under Sections 420, 421, 466, 467, 468, 471, 167 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, Section 12 of the Passport Act and 7, 8, 13 (2) 88 the Prevention of Corruption Act at the Zirakpur police station.