Probing fake passport & visa racket, ED finds ‘Bangladeshi' held in Bengal is actually Pakistani
The federal probe agency has made these submissions in the prosecution complaint filed on 13 June before a special court in Kolkata. Azad was arrested on 15 April by the agency as it was originally probing his stay in India without valid documents.
Investigating a fake passport racket, the ED found that Azad was allegedly involved in procuring passports and visas for Bangladeshi nationals seeking to travel to foreign countries including Dubai, Cambodia, and Malaysia via India.
New Delhi: A Pakistani national, he took on the identity of a Bangladeshi national to enter India and procured multiple Indian identification cards to stay illegally in India. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) suspects Ahammed Hossain Azad alias Azad Hossain or Ajad Mallik was 'actively involved' in facilitating passports and visas for Bangladeshi nationals.
The ED's case stems from an FIR filed by West Bengal police under Section 14 and 14A of Foreigners Act, 1946 against Azad and others. The agency carried out searches at seven premises linked to him, including his residence at M.A. Sarani in North 24 Parganas district.
'Through document forgery and illegal means, it is suspected that he along with his accomplices have made 100s of fake passports and facilitated movement of Bangladeshi nationals to foreign countries through India,' an ED official said.
Also Read: Pakistan High Commission official in Delhi named in FIR for seeking Indian defence info, 2 arrested for spying
'Pakistani ID, Bangladeshi identity as cover'
During the investigation, the agency found a driving license issued in 1994 in Pakistan's Hyderabad province on Ajad's mobile phone.
In the document, he was referred to as Ahammed Hossain Azad, son of Mumtaz-Ul-Haque, a permanent resident of Pakistan. On the other hand, his current documents claim his father's name to be Mona Mallik, a Bangladeshi national.
Azad used his forged Bangladeshi identity to hide his Pakistani identity and live among the Bangla-speaking population in West Bengal, sources in the agency told ThePrint.
'In order to conceal his true identity, Azad Hussain adopted the alias 'Ajad Mallik' and procured multiple Indian identity documents—including Aadhaar card, PAN card, driving licence, voter ID, and passport—by submitting forged and fabricated documents,' an agency spokesperson said Monday in a statement.
Azad makes regular visits to Bangladesh to meet 'his wife and son' to keep his fake identity alive, say agency officials.
The agency has also found that Azad operated a cross-border hawala network to facilitate transfer of illegal money between India and Bangladesh. For this, the agency has alleged, Azad and his accomplices used to take cash from people, deposit in into bank accounts and then transfer it to Bangladesh through platforms such as bKash.
ED officials said that the investigation conducted so far found deposits amounting to more than Rs 60 crore in one of the firms managed by Azad and a conduit, who is currently absconding. 'The money has been found to be deposited in the bank accounts but further investigation is underway to identify and establish proceeds of crime in this entire module,' another official said.
'Further, Azad Hossain played a significant role in the fraudulent activities carried out at certain forex changers (FFMC) based in Kolkata, in which huge cash deposits were falsely represented as proceeds from legitimate foreign currency sales to customers but were Proceeds of Crime (POC) actually linked to unlawful practices, including the creation of fake Indian identities for Bangladeshi individuals to obtain passports,' said the ED spokesperson.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: The Great Indian Passport Scam: Labyrinth of fictional identities, expert forgers & pliant system
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