Fake Passport Racket Probe Reveals 4 Arrested Suspects Have Bangladeshi Roots; 25 Officials Under Scanner In Bhopal

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The preliminary investigation carried out by the Special Task Force (STF) into the fake passport case has revealed that the four arrested suspects have roots in Bangladesh, officials said here on Monday.

On September 7, the STF busted a racket involved in preparing passports on fake documents. Most passports were prepared in the names of people who are residents of Assam.

Preliminary inquiries show them to be residents of Bangladesh who had entered Assam illegally and spread across the state by changing their names and identities.

Officials claimed that the four arrested suspects are mastermind Riyal Chaudhary, Jai Chaudhary Barua, Priyan Rai, who was arrested from Ulhasnagar in Maharashtra and Biplab Adhikari, who was arrested from South Delhi. Eight others are still being sought, with separate STF teams conducting raids.

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh):

An investigation by STF has found the roles of 25 police officials and employees of other departments in Bhopal, Gwalior, Chhindwara, Pandhurna and Betul to be suspicious, putting them on the STF radar.

The operation to make fake passports for Bangladeshis began in Dabra in Gwalior district in 2021.

The STF has come to know that 70 passports were prepared, including 40 in Bhopal, 17 in Dabra, 11 in Betul and one each in Chhindwara and Pandhurna.

Whereas these are the passports which have been traced by the STF, there are more passports that have not been tracked by the STF till now.

Five teams conducting raids outside Madhya Pradesh

The STF SP Rajesh Singh Bhadoria said that five of their teams were conducting raids outside Madhya Pradesh in a fake passport case.

He added that in the last five years, the files reached several departments and police stations, from the fraudulent creation of Indian documents to passport verification.

A list has been prepared of police officials, police personnel and employees of other departments linked to the case.

All of them are under investigation and will be questioned. Two or three documents belonging to several suspects have also been found.