UP ATS arrests Assistant Passport Officer

Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) today arrested Assistant Passport officer (APO) posted at Regional Passport office here for his alleged involvement in corruption in issuing passports.
Sudhakar Rastogi has been arrested from his Aishbagh residence here, Inspector General, ATS, Asim Arun told PTI.
An FIR has been registered against Rastogi under various sections of IPC including the one that deals with charges of fraud, he said.
Rastogi has also been booked under Passport Act for his alleged involvement in corruption in issuing passports and changing category of general passports to ECNR (Emmigration Check Not Required), the officer said.
Persons with their passports ECNR-stamped are eligible to go abroad on Employment VISA, otherwise not. For ECNR the candidate should have a SSC pass certificate. Agents and touts cheat innocent people promising them ECNR passports on fake documents.

The ATS had on March 27 busted a racket and had arrested six persons-- Mohammad Maroof, Mohammad Faisal, Mohammad Javed, Arman Khan, Kulvinder Singh and Mohammad Shoeb-- and had recovered 73 passports, laptops and other documents from them.

"People who go to certain countries for jobs have to undergo emigration checks and in the absence of ECNR stamp on the passports, they could not go for jobs in these countries," the UP ATS had said.
The countries are-- Bahrain, Brunei, Kuwait, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arab and the UAE.
Fake marksheets of class 10 were made so as to facilitate ECNR passport by these touts, it said.