Latest news with #AzadMullick
Hans India
5 days ago
- General
- Hans India
ED seeks info from MEA on visa granted to Pakistani citizen arrested in Kolkata
Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought information from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the visa granted to Azad Mullick, the Pakistani infiltrator who was arrested from Kolkata by the ED officials earlier this year in connection with fake passport and hawala rackets. Azad, originally a Pakistan citizen, first arranged for Bangladeshi citizenship using forged documents and thereafter came to India on a legal visa. However, after coming to India, soon he arranged fake Indian identity documents for himself, including an Indian passport. This was again done with the use of forged documents, and he even started running a fake passport and hawala business from his rented accommodation in the northern outskirts of Kolkata. Sources said that the ED sought information from the MEA on the documents produced by Azad, then as a Bangladeshi citizen, while applying for the Indian visa. The ED also sought the details of the staff of MEA who examined Azad's visa application at that point in time. Azad's original name as a Pakistani citizen was Azad Hossain, which he changed to Ahammed Hossain Azad when he managed Bangladeshi citizenship through unfair means. Finally, in the fake Indian passport, his name was mentioned as Azad Mullick. During his arrest, two fake EPIC cards, multiple fake driving licences, and four fake birth certificates were also seized by the Investigating Officers from his possession. The Investigating Officers are now probing Azad's possible links with different terror groups. Recently, the ED had informed a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata that some highly sensitive information from individual and group chats in WhatsApp was secured from the mobile phones of Azad. These discoveries gave the Investigating Officers a clear idea of the individuals in neighbouring Bangladesh who were recipients of the money routed through Hawala from Kolkata. Considering that the activities and conversations in certain groups were quite suspicious, ED officials are now investigating whether the money routed through hawala to Bangladesh was used in terror funding or not.
Hans India
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Fake passport racket: Cops tracking foreign nationals enrolled in voters' list in Bengal
Foreign nationals, mainly Bangladeshis, enrolled in the voters' list in West Bengal with forged documents, are being tracked, police said on Wednesday. Sources said the investigating officials have received some specific names of such foreign nationals whose fake Indian identity documents, including Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) cards, AADHAAR cards, and even Indian passports, were arranged by Azad Mullick, a Pakistani citizen recently arrested by the officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Kolkata. Azad, a Pakistani citizen, first arranged Bangladeshi citizenship for himself and subsequently Indian citizenship, using forged documents. Investigation revealed that Mullick was enrolled as a voter of Dum Dum-Uttar Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, which is again one of the seven Assembly constituencies under Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency. Investigation also revealed that he had voted twice, first in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election and then in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Now, the sources added, further investigation revealed that Azad was not the only one to become an "Indian voter" with forged documents. All of them, the sources added, had voted in subsequent elections in the past with the clear intention of establishing their Indian citizenship, which they arranged for through unfair means and forged documents. At the same time, the investigating officials are also trying to bust agents' rackets operating at different hospitals, village panchayats, and municipalities, whose only task is to arrange fake birth certificates for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Similar agents' network in offices of the state Food and Civil Supplies Department, whose task is to arrange fake ration cards for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, was also being probed. Investigation revealed that the fake birth certificates and fake ration cards are the roots of preparing more Indian identity documents for such infiltrators. The cops investigating the fake Indian identity document rackets have identified a specific pattern in the operations of such rackets in this particular chain of crime. Infiltrators illegally crossing over to the Indian territory, contacting the local agents, and showing willingness to pay out hefty amounts for getting fake Indian identity documents are first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal. Thereafter, the agents arrange for fake birth certificates and fake ration cards, which is the first step for making other identity documents like EPIC cards, AADHAR cards, and PAN cards. The last step is getting the fake passports based on these other fake identity documents.
Hindustan Times
09-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Chats, documents found in phone of Pak national held in passport case: ED tells court
KOLKATA: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating whether a 53-year-old man, arrested last month for allegedly selling fake identity documents to Bangladeshi nationals, used the funds for terrorist activities, the agency told a Kolkata court on Thursday. Azad Mullick, 53, alias Ahmed Hussain Azad, a prime suspect in the passport case, was arrested on April 15 from Birati in North 24 Parganas district. He was initially identified as Azad Mullick, a Bangladeshi national. While seeking extension of his police custody for further interrogation on Thursday, ED told a Kolkata's city sessions court that documents running into 20,000 pages and WhatsApp chats with Pakistani citizens were recovered from the two mobile phones seized from his possession during his arrest in April, lawyers who attended the hearing said. The court rejected his bail petition. Azad Mullick has been charged with entering India in 2019 and allegedly procuring Indian identity documents, such as Aadhaar card and driving licence, not only for himself but for at least 200 Bangladeshis for money. These documents were allegedly used by Bangladeshi nationals to get Indian passports and many of those Bangladeshis went abroad, the probe indicated. ED told the city sessions court last week that Mullick's real name is Ahmed Hussain Azad and he was a Pakistani national who entered Bangladesh in 2017 and obtained a local passport before applying for a tourist visa to reach India. A Pakistani driving license was recovered from his home during a raid, ED said. Azad allegedly raised more than ₹2 crore by providing illegal Bangladeshi immigrants with Aadhar cards etc. Since the money was transferred to him through hawala, ED said it was probing whether it was used to fund terrorist activities.
Hans India
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Hans India
Bengal: Arrested Pakistani citizen voted in 2021 Assembly polls & 2024 LS elections
Kolkata: Azad Mullick, the Pakistani citizen who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last month from Kolkata in connection with the multi-crore fake passport racket operating in West Bengal, has voted twice, first in 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls and then again in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Sources said that the ED investigation has revealed that Azad was enrolled as a voter of Dum Dum-Uttar Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas district, which is again one of the seven assembly constituencies under Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency. They said that Azad, during the ED interrogation, admitted to voting in 2021 and 2024. When Mallick was arrested at the beginning of April, documents seized by the ED official at that point showed that he was a Bangladeshi citizen who was residing in India after arranging Indian identity documents, including an Indian passport, by furnishing fake documents. It was also revealed then that Mallick, the owner of Mullick Trading Corporation, was also operating a hawala racket from his residence in the city, besides being involved in a racket engaged in providing fake Indian passports for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. However, on April 29, the ED counsel informed a special court in Kolkata that in the face of interrogation, Mullick was an original resident of Pakistan, who first managed to arrange a Bangladeshi citizenship and subsequently arranged for Indian identity documents. Mullick's original name as a Pakistani citizen was Azad Hossain, which he changed to Ahammed Hossain Azad when he managed Bangladeshi citizenship through unfair means. Finally, in the fake Indian passport, which he managed through unfair means, his name was mentioned as Azad Mullick. During his arrest, two fake EPIC cards, multiple fake driving licenses, and four fake birth certificates were also seized by the investigating officials from his possession. ED had also frozen a bank account in his name with a deposit of Rs 2.62 crore. Sources said that ED officials are now investigating whether the money was used for any sort of anti-national activities in India.
