The Telegraph report

New Delhi, April 28: The Telegraph expose on the missing passports from the Indian consulate in Dubai has foreign ministry officials looking for cover and excuses. In the process of “denying” the report, they tied themselves up in knots.

While the Indian ambassador to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmad, and the Dubai consul-general, Venu Rajamony, denied information on the missing passports yesterday, the latter today admitted that “five bags containing 500 passports were missing in March 2007 during transit from the ministry of external affairs to Dubai”.

Rajamony issued a statement in Dubai today, saying an inquiry was under way in Delhi. Ministry officials in Delhi refused to make any statement or comment on the status of the inquiry.

Sources in the ministry, however, confirmed that 500 passports had gone missing. Top intelligence officials also confirmed that some RAW officials and Dubai consul officials were believed to have been involved in the pilferage.

Rajamony did not appear sure where the passports went missing. At one point in the statement, he said they were found missing from Delhi airport. At another point, he said they were lost in transit. But he was still of the view that The Telegraph report was “untrue and baseless”.

The Telegraph’s information is based on impeccable intelligence sources.

“Anything and everything happening in Dubai is sensitive. Since this is a matter of national security and has the Dawood Ibrahim angle, such a reaction from the consulate was expected,” an intelligence official said.