Racket gets ‘original’ passports for Lankans to fly abroad as Indians

CHENNAI: Armed with knowledge of the loopholes, thanks to the latest technology, and in cahoots with government officials, fraudsters in the city can now ‘issue’ original passports. Only the person carrying it is fake.

Sleuths of the central crime branch of police recently busted a deep-rooted passport racket that has been operating for more than three decades. Police have detained 10 people under the Goondas Act. They picked up four more on Friday.

The racket, mostly catering to Sri Lankan Tamils seeking to fly abroad, had the involvement of travel agents, personnel from the intelligence wing and postal department. The racket helped foreign nationals procure an original passport for Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5lakh.


The collusion of officials surfaced following apprehension of constable K Murugan, 49, from the intelligence wing on July 10 and postman Dhanasekaran, 56, who worked for almost three decades in the postal department, a day later. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the two along with a few travel agents had helped more than 15 people, who didn’t possess any valid address and identity proof, get original passports. They took Rs 1,000 each to get passports to random people.

This has blown the lid off a bigger network based in Chennai. An investigation officer said, "Racketeers helped many Sri Lankan Tamils, who failed to go to Australia through illegal routes, get passports."

Besides exploiting loopholes in the systems, racketeers also grease the palms of officials responsible for verifying documents.

Police arrested CRPF constable R Christopher, 40, and S Manivannan,41, on May 8 in connection with the racket. Christopher was posted as a counter officer at the Chennai airport on deputation for six months while Manivannan was a temporary peon at the administrative office in the airport.

Another police officer said, "Racketeers use their network to bribe the immigration officials, police intelligence officials and postal officials to get a new passport. They don’t need to tamper with the security features of the passport."

A police officer who is part of the the case said, "The disturbing trend is found not only in Chennai. Racketeers are targeting places wherever they can use the officials, even on the outskirts of the city."

Once passport is secured, a person, assisted by racketeers, approaches embassies and consulates of countries like Australia, The UK and Canada to get visa by submitting fake documents.