Ranchi, April 25: The city too played a role in the making of Sher Singh Rana, the alleged killer of bandit queen-cum-politician Phoolan Devi who, after escaping from Tihar Jail two years ago, was arrested in Calcutta yesterday.

Rana got a passport (E-7865873) made in Ranchi using the alias Sanjay Kumar Gupta. The document, issued by the Ranchi regional passport office, was found on Rana when he was arrested from a PCO in central Calcutta yesterday evening.

The recovery of the passport has triggered a blame game between the police, administration and the passport office in Ranchi.

The passport was issued to Rana on the recommendation of then subdivisional magistrate (sadar) Vinay Kumar Sinku under the Tatkal service on May 24, 2004, three months after his dramatic escape from Tihar Jail.

Information pieced together from police sources suggest that Rana had come to Ranchi and got in touch with one Badal Yogi, who used to run an airhostess training centre at Raj Mansion Building in Hinoo. Yogi also used to work as a passport agent.

It was Yogi who got the passport issued in the name of Sanjay Kumar Gupta. The address given was Raj Mansion Building, near Hinoo Chowk, Ranchi, Jharkhand. This was the same place where Yogi had his office.

The recommendation order (copy with The Telegraph) clearly says that Sanjay Gupta has a good character and reputation and hence a passport should be issued to him. What is significant is that a Punjab police team arrested Yogi last April from Ranchi in connection with a fake passport racket.

Investigations revealed that Sanjay Kumar Gupta is a fake name. Vinod Prakash, the owner of Raj Mansion, said he had never given accommodation to anyone by that name.

?No one by the name of Sanjay Kumar Gupta lived here. But Badal Yogi lived in this place from where he ran his businesses. We began to doubt his shady operations and asked him to vacate the room in December 2004. He had been living here for more than eight months. After this, he shifted to Nagchaya Apartments, 2 km from here,? he said.

The passport office recommended the cancellation of Sanjay Gupta?s passport on April 5, 2006, almost two years after the document was issued to him. Rohtas Singh, the passport officer, said: ?We are not at fault. The man had come with the recommendation letter of the SDM (sadar). It was on that basis that we gave him the passport.?

?Later during investigations by the CID, we found certain anomalies. The police reports said Sanjay Gupta had left the house a long time back. We sent two letters to the address mentioned. Both were returned undelivered. Following this, we recommended the cancellation of his passport. It is the fault of the police and the administration,? he said.

The police had their own explanation. Ranchi SSP R.K. Mallick said the force was not at fault. ?We have seen our report. It clearly says that our men went to his house and he was not living there. We had informed the passport office.?

But the documents say otherwise. An inspector at the Doranda police station, Ravinder Kumar, has clearly stated that the name and the address of Sanjay Kumar Gupta are correct and that he has no case lodged against him anywhere. Sinku, who is now with the Marketing Board, was diffident. ?Why should I be at fault? The police carried out the investigation. It was only then that the recommendations came to me,? he said.