The south division police arrested nine people, including four touts, for getting Indian passports for foreign nationals and habitual offenders using fake credentials.
The accused have been identified as Sadiq Pasha, 33, and his associates Anees Sait, Nawal and Hydar. The police also arrested five Sri Lankan nationals who have obtained valid Indian passports through Sadiq and his associates.
City Police Commissioner C.H. Pratap Reddy said that the accused have similar cases against them in six police stations in and around the city and were arrested earlier. However, after coming out on bail, the accused continued to create fake credentials for their clients to apply and get passports. The fake credentials includes voter ID , Aadhaar, and school leaving certificate in the name of their clients to be used as documents to be submitted to claim domicile status for a passport .
Using the modus operandi, the accused have helped 50 people get a passport. The beneficiaries include foreign nationals and habitual offenders. Citing an example, a senior police officer said that one of the beneficiary is a habitual thief having as many as 36 house break-in cases while his brother has 15 criminal cases pending against him.
The scam was unearthed on October 19 when alert passport verification duty staff based on a complaint cross-checked their credentials and reported the matter. Following this, a special team was formed to arrest the gang.
In June, the Madanayakanahalli police, on Tumakuru Road, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, arrested a gang of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants helping other illegal immigrants from the country to forge and acquire identity documents in and around the city. They were caught during the course of an investigation into an ATM theft case in which an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant, with valid documents, was arrested.
