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Passport scum: National security under siege

The fake passport racket busted by the Central Bureau of Investigation has opened up a pandora’s box of disturbing questions, the answers to which lead to the passport office, police department and loopholes in existing laws.

Apprehensions regarding the upright functioning of Ahmedabad regional passport office and police authorities have surfaced once again as the racket clearly exposes the threats to national security in such cases. Speculations indict connivance between police officials of the state and the regional passport office in Ahmedabad in issuing more than 70,000 bogus passports in a span of three years. Several arrests, ranging from the employees of the passport office, passport agents, travel agents, applicants to executive magistrates, have been made so far in this connection.

Sources in the CBI point out, "Applications by people for passports on the basis of fake school leaving certificates and ration cards is understood. But it is difficult to believe that how are such applications able to filter through the police verification." The CBI officials are convinced that there is a "networked and organised dealing" involved.

Till now hundreds of rubber stamps and seals of schools that do not exist and 1,000 blank affidavits signed by executive magistrate have been recovered from about 80 passport agents involved in the racket. Moreover, the index cards, supposed to be the official property of the passport office that contain the information about passport holders, is also missing.

Although Ahmedabad police commissioner P.C. Pande agreed that fake passports are a grave problem, he did not blame a single authority for the entire racket. He said, "No one can be blamed entirely for the issuance of fake passports." He said the system is not "foolproof and stringent," and certain rules that can be easily manipulated by the offenders require amendment. He said certain kind of passports do not require police verification.

According to him, the city commissionerate receive more than 50,000 passport applications for verification. "However, many a times when the police tries to contact the applicants for verification they evade it and deliberately cause delays." He said when the stipulated time lapses as per the rules the applicants get the passport without appropriate verification.

Director general of police C.P. Singh said, "It will be shameful if police officials are involved in a nexus with passport officials in this racket. Once the CBI report is out, strict action will be taken against all those implicated in the case." Regarding the provision in the passport Act, which authorises the RPO to issue a passport, if the police verification is not completed in four weeks, the passport is issued without verification. Mr Singh said, "There is a flaw in the procedure, it requires to be done with better scrutiny so that loopholes are not exploited." The CBI has so far interrogated several constables and inspectors from various police stations of Ahmedabad and other districts. In an alarming case, a passport application sent for verification was supposedly verified and the concerned document bore the signature and seal of a police sub-inspector from an Ahmedabad police station, who does not exist at all.

The passport application is accompanied with a proof of birth date and residence. Birth proof may be in the form of school leaving certificate and the proof of residence in the form of ration card or telephone bill, electricity bills etc. ACP (crime branch) Subhash Trivedi said the CBI has been able to expose a major racket that could have compromised national security in the past. Authorities have to ensure that order is restored and bogus issuance of passports is prevented.

He said, "Archana Sharma, member of the famous Bablu Shrivastava and Iqbal Goga gang, is still at large. She got her passport from Ahmedabad passport office." He also said that the racket will be a lesson for the police to be more alert and suggested that spot verification be made mandatory. However, he regretted the statute under which "a time limit is fixed for verification, which otherwise lapses." It gives the offenders a chance to get a passport using illegal means.