In trouble-makers’ hands, the missing passports can become deadly weapons

New Delhi, April 27: A Dawood Ibrahim connection has blown the lid off a passport racket in the Indian consulate in Dubai but the scandal has been swept under the carpet as it threatened to open a can of worms involving senior officials.

Nearly 500 passports were found missing from the consulate in the emirate around six months ago. Some of the passports are said to have been handed to the relatives of Dawood, India’s most wanted fugitive.

The scandal would have gone unnoticed had not an official in the consulate blown the whistle. The official decided to raise the issue after he realised that some members of Dawood’s family were among the beneficiaries.

Officials in intelligence agencies are still trying to ascertain the damage caused by the pilferage of genuine passports, made at the Indian Security Press (ISP) in Nashik. They are trying to trace the numbers of the missing passports and see whether the documents have been used for travel.

Many of the 500 passports were blank — which means the scope for misuse is extremely high — and others were renewed documents, which also can be tampered with.

A bag full of genuine passports is a goldmine for potential terrorists as it gives them a new and clean identity. “People can travel to India from anywhere in the world. The threat to internal security is great,” an official said.

Sources in the intelligence agencies said a discreet inquiry was carried out at the consulate after the matter was brought out in the open.

“But the inquiry was subsequently hushed up since it had thrown up some uncomfortable things,” a highly placed source said.

Dawood. File picture

Apparently, some senior officials of the consulate, including those representing the RAW, the external intelligence agency, were found to be involved.

“Had the inquiry reached its logical conclusion, it would have opened a can of worms. Senior officials in the consulate and even some in the external affairs ministry in Delhi would have come under the scanner,” the source said.

Another reason also came into play. “It was decided to keep quiet since other operations of the external intelligence agency would also have got exposed. Dubai is an extremely important and sensitive port from the intelligence point of view. The entire organisation would have got a bad name had it come out in the open,” the source said.

However, the consulate could not have ignored the security lapse completely. It transferred out a RAW official and a consulate employee.

“The inquiry revealed that passports were sold for anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh,” another source said.

So methodical was the racket that related applications, which could have helped trace the original holder in case of renewed passports, were found missing from the consulate. “This was more proof of connivance of the consulate staff,” an official said.

In some cases, the passports were ostensibly issued as duplicates in lieu of lost documents. “In such a case, the consulate is supposed to keep a loss circular. There was no record of any loss circular either,” he said.

All Indian missions abroad are sent new passports and visa stickers by the foreign ministry’s consular, passports, visas (CPV) division periodically.

The CPV, being the nodal authority to assess the requirement of blank travel documents, is supposed to monitor the demand, supply and receipt of the papers. It is also supposed to keep track of any discrepancy between the number of passports sent to a particular mission and those issued.

The blank documents, including passports and visa stickers, have to be in the custody of an officer not below the rank of an attache.

The Indian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Talmiz Ahmad, said he was not aware of any passports missing from the Dubai consulate.

When The Telegraph contacted the ambassador on phone, he happened to be in a meeting with the Dubai consul-general, Venu Rajamony. Ahmad said neither Rajamony nor he had any information of passports being missing.