Kolkata Police nab passport applicant for using fake birth certificate from Bihar

Kolkata, April 5 (IANS) The Kolkata Police on Saturday arrested a man involved in an inter-state racket of printing fake birth certificates in Bihar and using them in West Bengal to arrange fake Indian passports for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Sleuths of the Security Control Organisation (SCO) of Kolkata Police arrested Azad Alam in the morning from Garden Reach area on the southern outskirts of Kolkata.

He had applied for a passport and furnished a birth certificate generated in Bihar as a supporting document, but it was found to be fake, said the police.

Alam is being interrogated about the agents through whom he managed to get the fake birth certificate from Bihar, said an official.

He has so far named a Bihar resident who reportedly acted as an ‘agent’ and helped him procure the fake birth certificate.

The city police will soon contact their counterparts in Bihar and, if necessary, send a team to the neighbouring state for investigation.

Sources aware of the development said that this is the first instance of a fake birth certificate originating in Bihar being used in a passport application in Bengal.

Recently, Kolkata Police launched a crackdown on syndicates involved in arranging fake Indian identity documents, including passports, for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Several persons including a retired sub-inspector of Kolkata Police have been arrested in this connection.

Shedding light on the modus operandi of such gangs, an investigator said that an illegal infiltrator who contacts local agents and shows willingness to pay hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents is first provided with a safe shelter in villages close to Bangladesh border.

Thereafter, the agents arrange fake birth certificates and ration cards for them. These documents are then used for making fake voter I-card or EPIC, PAN, Aadhaar cards and passports.

--IANS

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