Hyderabad: CID arrests four more in fake passport case

Hyderabad: The CID has arrested four more persons in connection with the fake passports case. With this, the total number of arrested is now 22, including 18 nabbed earlier.

The four arrested are identified as passport agent Koppisetti Kalyan, of BK Guda, SR Nagar, and three assistant sub-inspectors identified as Thippanna from Traffic PS, Maredpally, Shaik Nazeer Basha from Panjagutta Traffic PS, and Guntur Venkateshwarlu from the SHE Team at Haka Bhavan.

Based on the arrest of one of the accused on January 18, the CID started conducting raids in Nizamabad, Jagtial, Korutla, Nizamabad and Karimnagar and arrested the others and four on Sunday.

During investigation, prime accused Abdul Sattar Osman Al Jahwari admitted that he had been forging educational certificates for past 12 years. His criminal activities expanded to forging passports, charging up to Rs1 lakh each for a Chennai-based agent having links with Sri Lankan citizens and refugees.

He also confessed that the gang created fake Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, birth certificates and educational documents. The CID had seized a significant amount of evidence, including 108 passports, 15 mobile phones, five laptops, four CPUs, three printers, 11 pen drives, a scanner, and passport application related documents from them.

During the investigation, it was found that besides 95 passports given to illegal immigrants from Sri Lanka, another 30 passports were issued fraudulently using the same techniques bringing a total of 125 fake passports. The passport and immigration authorities have been informed about racket for necessary actions. Those arrested have been produced before the court.