Kolkata: Acting tough on the people involved in providing forged documents to Bangladeshi infiltrators in the country, the West Bengal police on Wednesday arrested one person for providing fake Indian passports to Bangladeshi infiltrators entering Indian territory through the state’s porous borders, both land and coastal.
The accused has been identified as Mokhtar Alam, was arrested from his residence at Duttapukur in North 24 Parganas district.
The police have claimed that they have recorded several incriminating documents, including fake PAN cards and bank ATM cards, have been seized from his possession.
The total number of arrests in connection with the fake passport rackets from different pockets in the state during the last 10 days has increased to six.
A senior official of the state police said that the investigating officials got information about Alam’s involvement in the racket by interrogating the five arrested earlier in connection with the fake passport racket scam.
They have identified a pattern in the operations of such rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for the Bangladeshi infiltrators. Any infiltrator illegally crossing over to the Indian territory, contacting the local agents and showing willingness to pay out hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents are first provided with safe shelters at different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state.
Thereafter, the agents first arrange for fake ration cards for them which is the first step for making other identity documents. By virtue of these, other identification documents like EPIC, PAN, and Aadhaar cards are arranged. The last step is getting the fake passports on the basis of the other fake identity documents.