Delhi man, brother ran fake passport and spy network, say police

Police said Adil Hussaini helped brother Akhtar, held in Mumbai for posing as a BARC scientist, forge passports and share sensitive data abroad.

Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested a 59-year-old man accused of spying for foreign countries and running a fake passport racket with his brother, who had earlier been caught posing as a scientist from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

(Representative image) The accused, from Seemapuri, was found with forged passports and alleged to have travelled to Pakistan and Gulf nations multiple times. (File photo)

The accused, identified as Adil Hussaini, was arrested by the Special Cell and booked for criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery which translates to the alleged fake passport scam. While espionage charges under the Official Secrets Act are yet to be invoked, police said the case has links to the alleged fake passport and spying network already under investigation in Mumbai.

Police said Adil’s brother, Akhtar Hussain Ahmed, the prime accused in the espionage case, was arrested on October 17 from his Versova home in Mumbai by the city police’s Crime Branch. He was found with two fake BARC identity cards. Investigators had said then that Akhtar had been “travelling the world” masquerading as a BARC scientist, attending international events, and meeting foreign nationals while claiming access to confidential nuclear data.

Officials said Akhtar had faced similar allegations in 2003-04 when he was accused of selling sensitive information while working with oil firms in Dubai, though no evidence was found at the time.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police on Monday arrested another suspect, Munazzir Khan, from Jamshedpur for allegedly helping Akhtar forge fake BARC IDs. Several diagrams and technical sketches recovered from Ahmed were found to be fabricated, police said.

Delhi Police detained Adil on Sunday from his Seemapuri residence before formally arresting him on Tuesday. “During interrogation, Adil was found to be working with his brother to supply sensitive information to foreign countries and procure multiple Indian passports using forged documents,” said Pramod Singh Kushwah, additional CP (Special Cell). “We recovered one original and two forged passports from him.” He was sent to seven days’ police custody.

With the arrests, investigators privy to the case said they have “busted” a major espionage network.

Police said Adil, originally from Tata Nagar in Jharkhand, had been living in Delhi for several years and had travelled multiple times to Pakistan and Gulf countries.

“We suspect the brothers have connections with nuclear and defence agencies abroad and may have shared sensitive data,” said an officer. Investigators believe the two also ran a fake passport racket and had managed to secure three identity cards for a confidential government centre.

Teams are now tracking others linked to the network and verifying how many passports were fraudulently obtained and to whom they were supplied, police said.