Police probing nexus helping criminals get passports, flee India

While the regional passport office is in Bareilly, Boxer had given a Moradabad address and the verification was done by the local police.

Gangster Deepak Pahal alias Boxer(27), who was arrested at an airport in Cancun, Mexico and brought to Delhi, has brought the focus on how criminals are procuring passports to flee India on the basis of forged documents and by bribing officials.

Gangster Deepak 'Boxer. (PTI)

Investigators have said that Pahal, who until his arrest was one the most wanted gangsters, had procured a passport in the name of Antil Ravi from Bareilly in western UP in December 2022. Pahal told police that Delhi gangster Kapil Sangwan alias Nandu had also got a passport issued from Bareilly and fled India in 2020. Sangwan, suspected to be hiding in Dubai, continues to run his extortion network in Delhi and Haryana.

While the regional passport office is in Bareilly, Boxer had given a Moradabad address and the verification was done by the local police.

Hemraj Meena, senior superintendent of police (Moradabad, said a constable who had conducted the verification for Boxer’s passport was suspended and arrested. “We found that a local tout, who also claims to be an advocate helped the gangster get the passport. As part of the inquiry ,we are also probing other cases in which the constable provided wrong verification.”

According to records seen by HT, gangs based in Punjab have helped at least eight criminals in Delhi and Haryana get passports issued by either bribing police officers (passports applied under non-Tatkal scheme) in some cases or using forged papers with their passport application.

Citing examples of how gangsters manage to get passports, a senior police officer said, “Punjab gangster Sachin Thapan, who is an accused in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case, had taken help of a Delhi gangster’s relative who stole an electricity bill of his former house owner, and used it to get a passport under a different name. So, Thapan became Tilak Raj Toteja, a resident of F block in Sangam Vihar, Delhi. Another gangster Anmol Bishnoi (co-accused in the Moosewala case), became Bhanu Pratap, a resident of Faridabad and fled the country. The accomplices of the two men stole identity proof (without photographs) such as electricity bill, postpaid phone bill or gas bills to get other identity proof documents and used them to get passport under Tatkal scheme. They then fled the country within a day or two of getting the passport.”

In some cases, the gangsters have also bribed officials from the police’s passport verification unit to evade scrutiny and get passports. Extradited Haryana gangster Raj Kumar alias Raju Basodi (also member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang), had used the Punjab gangster’s network, which involved Punjab police personnel from the passport verification department in their payroll. Another gangster, Rohit Godara suspected to be based in a European country, had also taken a passport(Tatkal scheme) while posing as Pawan Kumar, a resident of Delhi, the officer said.

“As Punjab police started probing the nexus in November 2020, and arrested some of their personnel, the criminal gangs shifted focus to Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh to procure a passport. Thapan got his passport made from Delhi. Bishnoi got it from Faridabad in Haryana. Both fled to countries with visa on arrival facility much before police could complete verification and a week before Moosewala’s murder. Godara is a Rajasthan gangster but used the network of Delhi gangsters to get passport from Delhi. They are all helping each other,” said a second police officer aware of probe into these cases.