The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a person while busting an international passport racket in West Bengal. ED has arrested Indubhushan Halder alias Dulal, resident of Chakdah village of Nadia district from Kolkata. He is accused of getting Indian passports to more than 250 illegal Bangladeshi citizens with the help of Pakistani agent Azad Hussain.
According to ED, this arrest was made on October 13 in Kolkata. Haldar lived in Chakdah, a border area of Nadia district, which is adjacent to the India-Bangladesh border. This area has long been considered the center of illegal immigrant entry and identity document scams. The mastermind of this entire matter is a man named Azad Hussain alias Azad Malik. PakistanHe is a citizen.
He was arrested by ED in April this year. Investigation revealed that he was living in India under a fake identity and name Azad Malik. He used to provide Indian identity cards and passports to illegal immigrants coming from Bangladesh in exchange for money. This agent, who came from Pakistan, was active in India for many years and had come into contact with some local networks of Bengal.
One of them is Indubhushan Haldar, who operated the entire network on the ground. Azad Malik used to take money from Bangladeshi citizens in India and send it to Indubhushan Halder. Halder used to prepare fake documents for these migrants, on the basis of which passports were issued. Till now, Haldar has got Indian passports issued through forged documents in 250 cases.
He earned huge profits from this. A case has been registered against him under money laundering. The investigating agency said that both the Kolkata-based special PMLA court and the Calcutta High Court had rejected Halder’s anticipatory bail plea. After this, ED has taken him into custody and started interrogating him. Halder admitted that he had met Hussain several times.
This network used to provide fake Aadhaar cards, voter IDs and residence certificates to Bangladeshi citizens. Indian passports were made on the basis of these documents. ED had listed Azad Hussain in a charge sheet in June. At present he is in jail in judicial custody. The agency is now trying to find out who else was involved behind this racket.
Investigating officials say that this network was not only a serious threat to national security, but it also provided a way for agents of Pakistan and Bangladesh to obtain Indian identity. ED’s arrest has once again confirmed that the fake document racket is deeply spread in the border areas. At present, detailed investigation of this racket is going on.
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