Kolkata: The police in both West Bengal Police and Kolkata are invistigating the fake passport rackets in the state, and are trying to track the links of these rackets with those involved in cross-border human trafficking.
Official sources said that the police investigation about the possible links between the fake passport and human trafficking rackets was prompted after examining the documents of the fake passports prepared by such rackets, where almost all the beneficiaries were illegal infiltrators.
In recent weeks several people have been arrested for providing fake Indian passports, Aadhar cards and other documents to Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Sources said that as most of the women infiltrators for whom such fake passports were made are within the age bracket of the early twenties and early thirties, suspicion about the involvement of human trafficking rackets became stronger.
The sources added that in the past few years, there had been stray instances where women were trafficked from neighbouring Bangladesh and this was done mainly for two purposes. On one hand, a small section of such trafficked women, after their fake Indian documents were arranged, were sent to different Indian states to work as domestic aides, against which their agents received commissions.
However, sources added, a major section of the trafficked women, mainly in the age brackets of early and mid-twenties, are sent to different red-light areas in the country to operate as sex workers.
In fact, sources said that the public prosecutor has also updated the court where those arrested in the fake passport case were presented, about the possibility of involvement of human trafficking angle in the menace.
So far six persons have been arrested in connection with the fake passport rackets since January 15.