Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) The Kolkata Police, on Friday, sent a communique to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in West Bengal, requesting the latter to immediately initiate cancelling passports made on the basis of fake documents, especially birth certificates.

An insider from the city police said that recently the officials investigating the fake passport rackets in the state unearthed a major fraud case in Pathankhali under Gosaba block in South 24 Parganas district, which was involved in manufacturing of fake birth certificates, often used as the basic and first-step document in the long process of arranging fake Indian passports.

The police officials also secured specific information that many of the fake birth certificates arranged by the Pathankhali-based rackets were subsequently used for making fake Indian passports.

The investigating officers also secured information that using the fake passports issued on the basis of these false birth certificates, some of the passport holders concerned left India and are currently residing abroad.

In light of the evolving situation, the city police insider said, the RPO has been requested to cancel those passports made through fake documents immediately and without further delay.

“At the same time, a separate communique has been sent to the headquarters of the state Health department requesting the latter to immediately cancel the fake birth certificates whose information has been secured by the investigation officials,” the city police insiders said.

Confirming the receipt of the communique from the state police, a senior official of the state Health department confirmed that the process had already started for cancelling these fake birth certificates.

The fact that fake birth certificates were acting as the roots for arranging other Indian identity documents was first noticed earlier this year by the investigating officials probing the multi-crore fake passport rackets operating from the state.

The investigating officers noticed a pattern in the operation of such rackets, where the illegal infiltrators, mainly from Bangladesh, were first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal, and subsequently, the agents arranged for fake birth certificates and fake ration cards for them, which were the first steps for making other identity documents.

–IANS

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