An officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation conducted enquiries at the Tiruchi Regional Passport Office (RPO) on Friday with respect to the documents submitted by a group of applicants who had forwarded their applications through the District Passport Cell (DPC) in Tiruvarur in 2012.
According to sources, the official sought to enquire about the original documents submitted by a group of about 100 applicants, some of who were suspected to be Sri Lankan nationals and obtained passports using bogus documents. Details about employees who had handled the applications were also collected. All the applicants were said to have been issued passports after police verification reports were received.
Officials of the Passport Office refused to divulge details and maintained it was only an enquiry.
The DPC in Tiruvarur and other districts under the jurisdiction of the Tiruchi RPO were closed a few months ago.
The DPC’s were functioning at the respective collector’s offices and were engaged in collecting and forwarding passport applications to the Tiruchi passport office.
