Separate teams of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted search and seizure operations at multiple locations in Calcutta and its adjoining districts on Tuesday in connection with the probe into an alleged racket where forged identity documents were used to obtain genuine Indian passports.

A special probe team of Kolkata Police investigated the case and submitted a chargesheet in March.

Sources in the central agency said its officers have been visiting parts of Nadia, North 24-Parganas, and Calcutta since early Tuesday, armed with specific information about individuals allegedly involved in the racket.

In the city, the team reached an address in Beckbagan early in the morning, looking for an agent who allegedly brought fake copies of documents required to obtain passports for his clients. Some of them were allegedly Bangladeshi nationals who managed to get Indian passports.

Around the same time, a team reached Birati, 20 kilometres north of the heart of Calcutta, looking for an individual allegedly linked to the racket. The team also helped agents find customers looking for passports.

Sources said the man in Birati was not around when the team reached.

The ED team went to an under-construction two-storey house in Birati and carried out search and seizure operations for several hours.

“The ED is probing the roles of these individuals in this case, it could be money laundering or helping foreign nationals settle in Bengal. A case under the Foreigners Act has been drawn up,” said a senior ED official.

The agency collected documents about the case from Kolkata Police in January after it appeared that several Bangladeshi nationals had allegedly collected Indian passports using fake documents, including their address and other identity proofs.

Senior officers said they wanted to find out whether any alleged laundering of money was involved.

Kolkata Police started investigating the case last September after the passport office in Calcutta raised the alarm, saying around 240 passports had been issued based on faulty documents.

During internal scrutiny, the passport office found discrepancies in the identity documents submitted with the applications for the 240 passports.

The passport office said the police had allegedly failed to identify the faulty documents during their verification.

A case was lodged with Bhowanipore police station under relevant sections of cheating by personation and forgery under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and separate sections of the Passport Act, and Kolkata Police set up a special investigation team to probe into the alleged scam.

On March 13, the city police submitted a chargesheet naming 130 people to be involved in the scam, including 120 Bangladeshi nationals who had allegedly obtained Indian passports using fake documents.

Within days of submitting the chargesheet, the investigators issued look-out notices against 69 people, whose passports were impounded during the probe into the passport fraud.

During the probe, the special investigation team arrested 10 people, including alleged masterminds Manoj Gupta and Samaresh Biswas, along with Abdul Hai, a former sub-inspector of Kolkata Police, who had worked for three years with the Security Control Organisation (SCO).