The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) busted an alleged passport racket in West Bengal and Sikkim, and arrested two persons including a Senior Superintendent of Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) posted at Gangtok in Sikkim in an alleged bribery case.
A case was registered against 24 accused. It was alleged that public servants of Regional Passport Office (RPO) Kolkata and Passport Seva Laghu Kendra (PSLK) Gangtok entered alleged conspiracy with others including passport agents, middlemen and in pursuance of said conspiracy, the accused were issuing passports on the basis of false and forged identity documents submitted by middlemen on behalf of those persons/applicants who are non-residents of India in lieu of illegal gratification, CBI said in a statement.
CBI recovered Rs 1.90 lakh from Senior Superintendent while allegedly accepting the same from a private person (an agent) at Siliguri. Both the accused were apprehended, claimed CBI statement.
During search, an amount of Rs 3.08 lakh was also recovered from the possession of said public servant, it said.
As part the crackdown on the racket, searches were conducted at around 50 places including Kolkata, Gangtok, Siliguri, Darjeeling and Alipur Dwar, at the premises of accused including public servants and others which led to recovery of large number of incriminating documents related to identity proofs, issuance of forged passports, CBI said.
