Bust of a Fake Passport Racket in West Bengal

Kolkata Police arrested the mastermind of a fake passport racket in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Manoj Gupta, operating from a travel agency, was apprehended based on earlier arrests. The racket involved creating fake passports and documents, primarily to aid Bangladeshis in obtaining illegal identities.

The Kolkata Police achieved a breakthrough in a major investigation after arresting the kingpin of a fraudulent passport operation in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district on Sunday.

Acting on information from prior detentions linked to the scandal, authorities nabbed Manoj Gupta, the primary suspect behind the illicit activity, from Chadapara Station Road near Gaighata. Gupta, a native of Silpara, Behala, managed his covert operations under the guise of a travel agency in Sakherbazar.

Gupta was allegedly responsible for producing fake passports, with the forgery network extending to visa issuance, as revealed by a police officer to PTI. Previous police actions led to the seizure of counterfeit documents and hardware equipment, further exposing the racket's extensive reach and its focus on facilitating illegal identity acquisitions for Bangladeshis.

(With inputs from agencies.)