The arrest of two abettors of ISI agent Syed Amir Ali in Lucknow on Tuesday has blown the lid off an organised racket in issuing passports to Pakistani nationals. Amir, who was arrested at Delhi’s IGI Airport on Sunday, was a Pakistani. But he got a passport issued from Lucknow in record time, on a non-existent address. In fact, he was not in Lucknow when he he applied.
Amir was caught with sensitive documents, like maps of cantonment areas in Lucknow and Meerut and classified information on army installations in UP.
“We are examining the passport issuance system,” additional DG Brij Lal said. The two associates — Mohd Arshad and Mohd Chand — were picked up during an operation by a National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and Delhi Police (DP) team.
Arshad and Chand fetched Amir a passport for Rs14,000 in 2005. They also got him a driving licence. The team raided the regional passport office and came across glaring lacunae in verification process.
Amir got a “genuine” passport even though two separate inquiries are conducted for verification of address and the applicant. “The address given in the passport does not exist,” additional D-G AK Jain said.
Amir applied for the passport on April 24, 2005 and got it on July 2, 2005, in less than three months. The passport was sent by registered post and delivered, though the address was fake. That’s not all. Amir even filed I-T returns between 2004 and 2007, though he landed in Lucknow only in May 2005. He acquired a driving licence, a mark-sheet from a local college and also held a bank account.
