B’desh national arrested for carrying fake passport

A Bangladeshi national was arrested on the charges of carrying a fake Indian passport on Sunday night.

The accused, Uttam Mondal was trying to go to Bangladesh with a fake passport. Police said he had changed his original name and took up a duplicate name – Kartik Mondal and made a duplicate passport.

After arresting Uttam, the investigating officers are now looking for some information regarding why he changed his name and was trying to escape to Bangladesh. “We are grilling him thoroughly,” said an investigating officer who refused to divulge more.

It is to be recalled that a Nepalese national was arrested on the charges of carrying a fake passport at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport – Kolkata, a few days ago. The accused woman was taken to additional chief Judicial Magistrate Court at North 24 Parganas, Barrackpore. 

The accused was charged with illegal admission to the country. Police said, Ashima Chhetri was going to Kuala Lumpur. She was caught red-handed during the checking by the custom officers. He was detained there and was transferred to the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBIA) police station. The woman was thoroughly interrogated. 

The incidents of fake passport travelling are frequent in Kolkata airport. The intelligence wing, CISF, central intelligence branch and national investigation agency (NIA) have been keeping an eye on every such incident.

It is to be recalled that four persons, including a Bangladeshi national were arrested in connection with a fake passport racket a few weeks ago from Baguiati area in the northern fringes of Kolkata and seven fake Indian passports were seized from their possession. The area is very close to Kolkata airport.

Acting on a tip-off, Bidhannagar Police in a joint operation with the CID managed to arrest all of them including the kingpin identified as Surajit Dutta. Sources said, all the fake passports were bearing addresses of Pathankot and Jalandhar. The investigation officers are trying to find out whether they have any connection with the Pathankot terror attacks or not.

About a year ago, two Sri Lankans and a Gujarati had been arrested at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport for travelling with fake passports. They were on their way to board a flight to Dubai.

The three have been identified as San Sathi, Kaja Babu and Ankit Sureshbhai Patel. Ankit is a resident of Gujarat while both San and Kaja are citizens of Sri Lanka. The trio had pasted their photographs on other people’s passports. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took them to their custody to interrogate.

Most of the people have been booked for the fake passport under various sections of the Indian Penal Code including 420, 465, 419, 120 B and were produced in court.