Suspects take Rs 3-5 lakh for fake passport, say police

PK Jaiswar

Amritsar, June 17

The police have sent the mobile phones of two members of an interstate racket of fake passport manufacturer for forensic examination to ascertain how many passports they had prepared and sent criminals to safe foreign shores.

Investigations carried out so far revealed that the suspects used to take Rs 3-5 lakh for preparing the passports using forged documents for faking the identity of the criminals, including drug peddlers and gangsters.

The police had arrested 12 members of the gang from Haryana, Delhi and Jharkhand areas in nearly a month-long operation. It has confiscated two fake passports and drug money to the tune of Rs 22 lakh from their possession.

“The accused used to take anything between Rs 3 -5 lakh for preparing fake passport. We have seized their mobiles during investigations, found a number of documents and identity proofs. We have sent these phones for forensic examination to ascertain how many passport they had prepared,” said Abhimanyu Rana, Additional Deputy Commissioner of police, who has been supervising the investigations.

Those arrested included Sawan Kumar, Sohan Lal, Navinder Singh, Jaswinder Gill, all residents of Kaithal (Haryana), Naveen Kumar of Jhabal (Tarn Taran), Rakesh Kumar of Kurukshetra, Sarvar of Sonipat, Dalip Kumar of Jharkhand, Amritpal Singh of Cheema Kalan (Tarn Taran), Amit Raghav of Gurgaon, Amrik Singh of Lopoke and Rahul Uja of New Delhi. The police had identified nine more suspects and raids were on to nab them.