A day after the Kolkata Police launched a major passport fraud investigation, the police arrested a man named Dipankar Das from Becharam Chatterjee Street in Parnasree police station area on Tuesday night. He was produced before the Alipore court on Wednesday, where he was sent to police custody till December 26.
The arrests were made amid an ongoing investigation by the detective department, after it was discovered that 73 Indian passports were allegedly issued to Bangladeshi nationals using “fake documents”.
When the police raided Das’s house, they recovered fake income tax statement documents, seals of two government banks, computer and printer. “Officials seized photocopies of 36 Indian passports along with Schengen and UK visas,” an official said.
According to sources, it is alleged that Das alone made 3,000 fake passports.
Kolkata Police is actively investigating the racket and its connections to other sectors, officials believe that 73 people have already traveled abroad using these fake passports.
Samaresh Biswas and his son Ripan Biswas, who are considered to be the main conspirators, along with two temporary post office employees, Deepak Mandal and Tarakanath Sen, have been arrested.
According to the investigation, a sophisticated operation was conducted under the leadership of Biswas and his son Ripon to make fake passports. They engaged two temporary workers of the post office, Tarkanath Sen and Deepak Mandal, to facilitate the obtaining of fake passports for Bangladeshi citizens.
The investigation also revealed that Das was tasked with preparing various documents like income tax returns and other tax related documents to make fake passports.
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