Hasan Ali

Patna, March 16: Stud farm owner Hasan Ali, accused of possessing multiple passports and money laundering worth crores, made one of his passports from Patna two months before the Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) office sent his report to the Regional Passport Office.

Patna SSP Alok Kumar on Wednesday said Ali’s report from the Patna SSP office was sent to the passport office on June 25, 1997.

“Hasan Ali was issued a passport from the office on April 10, 1997. There was no tatkaal system at that time and the SSP report was a consolidated one taking into reports of the local Alamganj police station and the Special Branch. This needs to be investigated as to how was he issued the passport? One Ashok Kumar received his passport. His whereabouts are being searched for,” the SSP said.

The police said they had sent at least three reminders to the chief passport officer in Delhi for the procurement of the original passport papers of Ali.

“The regional passport office gave the police the xerox copies, which are unreadable. Reminders have been sent and the original papers, when procured, will be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for analysis. The SSP report also says Hasan was a resident of Alamganj. We need to find out the truth,” the SSP said.

The police said M.N. Prasad was the regional passport officer when Hasan got his passport from Patna. “At the time the police was verifying the address, there were two witnesses who had approved to Ali’s said address in Alamganj area.

They have been identified as Raju Kumar and Mahesh Kumar, both residents of Alamganj. The police are searching for them at present,” a police officer said.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had asked the passport offices of Patna, Mumbai and Pune for a legal action against Ali in 2007 for possessing multiple passports.

Following this, the Mumbai passport office had lodged an FIR against him and had revoked the passport.

“Even after three years, the Patna regional passport office did not lodge any FIR against him. It was only lodged in December 19 last year after reminders from the ED. The police, at present does not know whether the passport office revoked his passport or not,” the SSP said.

He added: “What is surprising is that during the time of passport form filling, there are two places in the form in which personal details need to be filled up. One of the forms has got his birthplace as Hyderabad and the other has got his address in Belsand in Sitamarhi. The fact that the passport office didn’t check is suspicious. There are many such things which needed a probe.”