A Pakistani national who had entered India and obtained fake identity documents to assume Indian nationality, and was allegedly involved in a fake passport racket, also allegedly helped many get fake visas for multiple countries, the Enforcement Directorate submitted before a court on Tuesday.
In addition to the other accusations, Ahmed Hossain Azad was involved in a visa racket, too, the ED told the court.
“The ED has not only found his involvement in a fake passport racket but also stumbled upon his role in arranging fake visas for foreign countries,” the advocate of the central agency, Bhaskar Bandopadhyay, told Special CBI Court-II at Bichar Bhavan.
The ED submitted that Azad had been part of transactions to the tune of ₹50 crore while running these rackets.
Sources in the central agency said arranging a fake visa involves forgery at multiple levels.
“We are in the process of unearthing this racket. We have found some vital evidence during the investigation of the fake passport case,” an ED officer said.
Two Indian voter identity cards were allegedly found in Azad’s possession. One from the Rajarhat-Gopalpur Assembly constituency and the other from the Naihati Assembly constituency, both in North 24-Parganas.
Azad, who was earlier assumed to be a Bangladeshi national with forged Indian identity documents, turned out to be a Pakistani after his arrest.
ED officials suspect that just like how he obtained fake documents to assume an Indian identity, he was also getting other Pakistanis Indian documents.
Sources in the central agency said documents comprising around 20,000 pages were found on two mobile phones seized from Azad.
“A large number of photographs, possibly meant for making fake passports, have also been found on his mobile phones. His phone chats make it clear that he was regularly in touch with people in Pakistan,” said an ED officer.
After finding out about his Pakistani links, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), too, interrogated him in ED custody.
Azad, who reportedly entered India through Bangladesh, had family there. He had a wife and two sons in Bangladesh before he came to Bengal and managed to obtain fake Indian identity documentsin 2019, an ED investigator said.
The ED arrested him in Birati, on the northern outskirts of Calcutta, in connection with a fake passport racket on April 15.
On Tuesday, the court sent Azad to judicial custody for 14 days.