New Delhi: The CBI has registered 12 cases against 14 officials including Passport Assistants and Senior Passport Assistants posted at Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) of Lower Parel and Malad, and eighteen (18) passport facilitation agents and touts for allegedly indulging in collusive.
It was alleged that these officers were in regular contact with passport facilitation agents and conspiring with them to obtain undue advantage in lieu of issuance of passport based on inadequate and incomplete documents or by manipulating the personal particulars of passport applicants.
On June,26, 2024, Joint Surprise Checks (JSC) were conducted at PSK, Parel and PSK, Malad along with the Vigilance Officers of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) Division, Ministry of External Affairs and officers of RPO Mumbai.
During the Joint Surprise Check, the office desks and mobile phones of the suspect officers were analyzed jointly by the CBI team and Vigilance Officers of MEA.
The analysis of documents, social media chats and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID activities of suspect public servants revealed various suspicious transactions by some officials of PSKs indicating demand and acceptance of undue advantage through the passport facilitation agents for issuance of passports as well as to get passports issued based on inadequate and forged documents.
The suspect officers of PSKs, in connivance with various passport facilitation agents and touts were allegedly receiving huge monetary undue advantages directly in their own bank accounts or in the bank accounts of their near and dear, family members from the passport facilitation agents and touts to the tune of several lakhs of rupees.
CBI conducted searches at about 33 locations of accused public servants and private persons at Mumbai and Nashik leading led to recovery of several incriminating documents and digital evidence pertaining to passport documents, etc
