ED files prosecution complaint against arrested Pak national in PMLA court
Ajad Mallik, alias Ahammed Hossain Azad and Azad Hossain, an alleged Pakistani national, was arrested by the ED from North 24 Parganas' district of Birati in mid-April on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national. He was allegedly involved in arranging fake documents for the Bangladeshi nationals for settlement in West Bengal and other parts of the country.
Further investigation by the ED revealed that Azad Mallik was a Pakistani national and was arrested for violation of the Foreigners Act, 1946. During a search conducted by the ED on April 15 last in Birati, the agency confiscated fake documents, including that of AADHAR card, passports and other fake documents. He was also charged with hawala transactions for transferring money.
Azad Mallik is in judicial custody. The ED also seized a Pakistani driving licence dating back to 1994 from his mobile phone, bearing the name Azad Hossain and featuring the photograph of Ajad Mallik alias Ahammed Hossain Azad, besides a permanent address in Pakistan.
The document recorded his date of birth as August 14, 1971 and was issued by the licensing authority in Hyderabad, Pakistan.
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 license, voter ID, and passport — by submitting forged and fabricated documents.
The ED also seized documents of a hawala network from Azad to facilitate illegal cross-border remittances between India and Bangladesh, collecting payments in cash and through UPI, before transferring equivalent amounts to Bangladesh using platforms like Bkash.
He was actively involved in facilitating the preparation of visas and passports for Bangladeshi nationals seeking to travel to foreign countries such as Dubai, Cambodia, and Malaysia. He collected payments in Bangladeshi currency, American dollar, or Indian rupees and either deposited these amounts into his own bank account or transferred them to the accounts of associates engaged in fraudulent visa/passport processing.
Azad Hossain also allegedly 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 actually linked to unlawful practices, the ED said.
The ED filed a prosecution complaint against the Pakistani national on June 13 in the city special PMLA court.
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