Kolkata, Jan 4 A former cop has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the fake passport racket in West Bengal.
The former cop has been identified as Abdul Hai (61) who retired as a Sub-Inspector just a year ago.
Sources in the state police said that during the last few years of service, he was mainly assigned the task of "police verification" for the new passport applicants.
He was arrested from his residence at Habra under Ashoknagar Police Station in North 24 Parganas district. With this, the total number of arrests made in this connection has increased to nine.
The arrested former cops will be presented at a lower court in Kolkata on Saturday and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody for further interrogation.
Recently, both West Bengal and Kolkata Police have started the process of investigation against their colleagues of lackadaisical "police verification" processes resulting in the issuance of fake Indian passports to Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The investigation started after a city court recently directed investigating officials to probe their colleagues in relevant police stations.
The main charges against a section of cops engaged in the task of "police verification" for new passport applicants are that they did not physically make spot visits to the residences of certain passport applicants before submitting the clearance report on this count.
Since December 15, 2024, nine persons have been arrested for their involvement with rackets engaged in arranging fake Indian identity documents, including Indian passports, for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Several Public Distribution System (PDS) dealers are also under scanner for helping in the process of getting fake ration cards for such illegal infiltrators.
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