Police bust passport racket, five arrested

Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police today busted an alleged racket of agents which used to provide forged Verification Certificates and other documents required to procure a Passport under the Tatkal Scheme by an applicant.
Police has arrested five accused in this connection who have been identified as Rakesh Kumar Dubey (34), Jitender Singh (36), Shatrunjay Singh alias Rachit (27), Amit Sahu alias Guddu (41) and Mujeebur Rehman (48).
On March 18, an FIR was registered by EOW after it received a complaint from Regional Passport Officer, Delhi. It was reported that those citizens who applied for Passports under TATKAL category were required to submit a "Verification Certificate" from a competent authority.

"During scrutiny of the Verification Certificates of about 60 applicants who were issued passports during last year, it was found that the Verification Certificates submitted by them were actually not issued by the concerned authorities and were prepared using forged letter heads by the agents who facilitated the filing of the applications," said DCP (EOW) B K Singh.
The applicants who had submitted such certificates were examined by the police who stated that they were charged extra fees by the agents for submitting the applications, facilitating the verification certificate and taking online appointment.
"The Passports were issued by the RPO but during the post verification, the officials were taken aback when it emerged that the Verification Certificates submitted with the applications were forged. In some cases, even documents like Birth Certificate and Voter Card submitted for proof of date of birth and address were also found to be forged," said Singh.

Police collected documents submitted by 60 applicants from the Passport Office and found that the Verification Certificates were prepared using the letter heads and official rubber stamps of officials of various Govt Departments including GAIL, DRDO and AAI.
When police contacted these officials in whose names the "Verification Certificates' were purportedly issued, they expressed ignorance about issuing any such certificates. The interrogation of the applicants in question who got issued the Passports under Tatkal Scheme led the identity of the agents who were involved in the whole scam.