Officers of the Special Branch (SB) of the city police suspect that more people are involved in the forged passport racket, which came to light following a raid conducted on a cinema in north Calcutta late on Thursday. Many forged stamps and fake passports were seized from the premises.

?The racket operated from a room inside the cinema hall. Besides the owner and manager of the hall, who are already in custody, several others are involved. They used to send people outside the country, particularly to Bangladesh. Raids are being conducted to arrest the rest,? deputy commissioner of police (SB) Pradip Kumar Chatterjee said.

The police were trying to find out if these people had links with any terrorist organisation in Bangladesh. ?Investigations are on. So far, we have not got any specific information,? he said.

Acting on a tip-off, SB officers raided the cinema hall, Tasveer Mahal, in the Rajabazar area, and arrested owner Shafiqul Islam and manager Nesar Ahmed. Investigation revealed that the duo was involved in the racket for the past couple of years.

The modus operandi was simple. They forged passports by changing photos and putting immigration stamps of several check-posts in the country. To enable clients get foreign visas, they forged passports of people who had visited several countries. All this came for a hefty price.

?It was a very organised racket and they raked it in. The duo said it had sent over 500 people to Bangladesh. They put immigration stamps of other countries on the passports and sent people to Singapore and Hong Kong,? said an officer. The cinema proved to be a godsend for them, as it did not arouse suspicion. They operated from a first floor room.

?It was the office where they met clients. Nobody in the area knew about their activities. We got a tip-off last week from a person cheated by them,? the officer said.

The duo confessed that it worked for agents who brought in clients. ?They have revealed the names of the agents for whom they worked. Some of the agents are from central Calcutta. We raided their homes but they are absconding,? the officer added.

Officers of all city police stations have been alerted about the racket and raids are being conducted to flush out the agents.