Palande, Simran and gangster got passports from same agent?

Murder accused Vijay Palande, his wife Simran Sood and gangster Santosh Shetty got passports using fake documents through the same agent in Delhi. The Mumbai crime branch is now looking for this agent.

Murder accused Vijay Palande, his wife Simran Sood and gangster Santosh Shetty got passports using fake documents through the same agent in Delhi. The Mumbai crime branch is now looking for this agent.

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Like Palande, small-time model Simran aka Seema Dusaj had also obtained a fake passport from New Delhi in 2010, in a fake name (Simran Sood) using forged documents.

A crime branch official, requesting anonymity, said that so far they have found that three fake passports were issued by the said agent. Police suspect this could lead them to a bigger passport scam.

"We are looking for the agent, and have got some details from the Delhi passport office," the official said.

Palande is linked to Shetty as the two had met in Nashik jail. Palande is also believed to have done odd jobs for Shetty.

The official added that all the three are likely to be booked under the Passport Act.

"Sood also got her passport under an assumed name and used a fake address in Dilshad garden."

The crime branch has found that Palande used two passports - in different names - to travel in and out of the country, apart from the passport on his real name issued in 2008.

"Two of them are in false names - Karan Sood and Kiran Kanubhai Rana. Palande used the passports mainly to travel to Bangkok and several European destinations such as Barcelona," said the official.

Palande was arrested in 2006 from an apartment in Andheri (West) where he was living with Sood. The police discovered that Palande had a forged passport under the name of 'Kiran Kanubhai Rana', following which a cheating and forgery case was registered against him. Palande then jumped parole and was staying in Mumbai.