New Delhi, July 6
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at the office and residence of one more passport tout based in Mumbai in connection with the Regional Passport Office alleged illegal syndicate with passport agents.
During the searches, Rs 1.59 crores of cash and other incriminating material in form of 5 diaries and digital evidence have been recovered, CBI informed.
The CBI had registered 12 cases against 14 Officials including Passport Assistants/Sr. Passport Assistants posted at Passport Sews Kendras(PSKs) of Lower Parel and Malad, and eighteen (18) passport facilitation agents/touts on allegations that officials posted at PSK, Lower Parel, Mumbai and PSK Malad, Mumbai working under Regional Passport Office (RPO) Mumbai, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Govt. of India are indulging in collusive corruption with agents/touts. 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/incomplete documents or by manipulating the personal particulars of passport applicants.
These cases arose out of Joint Surprise Checks conducted by CBI at Parel and Malad along with the Vigilance Officers of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India and officers of RPO Mumbai. During Joint Surprise Check (JSC), the office desks and mobile phones of the suspect officers were analyzed jointly by CBI team and Vigilance Officers of PSP, Division, MEA. The analysis of documents, social media chats and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID activities of suspect public servants had 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/fake/forged documents.
The suspect officers of PSKs, in connivance with various passport facilitation agents / 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 / touts to the tune of several lakhs of rupees.
The CBI had earlier conducted searches at about 33 locations of accused public servants and accused private persons situated at Mumbai and Nashik, which had led to recovery of several incriminating documents / digital evidence pertaining to passport documents, etc.
