KATHMANDU, JAN 23 - The arrest of a non-gazetted Foreign Ministry official in connection with the supply of forged Nepali passports to five Afghan nationals has once again revealed that the racket is thriving because of collusion among government employees, human traffickers and security personnel.

Acting on the Foreign Ministry’s direction, police picked up Bacchu Ram KC, a government employee, on Thursday.

Superintendent of Police Ganesh KC said investigators are searching for clues of a nexus between KC and other members of the racket. However, police said a preliminary investigation had pointed out that New Delhi-based recruiting agent Bikram had delivered Nepali passports to the Afghans after receiving them from KC The Afghans had landed in New Delhi with the hope of finding lucrative jobs in Australia.

But some investigators suspect KC might be acting as per the direction of his seniors at the ministry. They question how he got hold of original passports on which he forged the signatures of seniors. 

KC is said to have confessed to investigators that his associates had collected money amounting to Rs. 1.8 million from him. KC allegedly used signatures of senior officers in original Nepali passports. The arrest was made after Indonesian authorities detained the Afghans and deported them to Malayasia.

But police are yet to confirm a link between the five Afghans and a Nepali national who were arrested at India’s Chennai airport in possession of fake passports in the first week of January. Indian immigration officials detained them when they were trying to board a Malaysia-bound flight.

Indian Police said 25-year-old Nepali, Sahara Subba Thebe, had collected $2,000 from each of the Afghans to arrange their passage to Malaysia.

Thebe had met the Afghans who were apprehensive that they might not be given visas for Malaysia because of their nationality. But Thebe arranged fake Nepali passports for them and brought them to Chennai via Mumbai.

Indian police have ascertained that the five had no terror links. On interrogation, the Afghans admitted that a travel agent had procured the fake Nepali passports for them against payment of a huge sum per person.

Investigators say hundreds of foreigners are buying Nepali passports to overcome hurdles posed by immigration authorities in foreign countries so that they can go abroad for work. Some rough estimates have it that every day nearly 150-200 Indians and Nepalis of Indian origin head abroad, particularly to the oil-rich Middle East using fake Nepali passports.

A senior police officer says that a section of employees at the immigration department, security personnel and aviation staff are involved in the passport racket. Police say selling passports to eager buyers willing to pay up to Rs. 150,000 is lucrative. They also claim that some recruitment agencies that pretend to hire blue-collar workers for manual labour in the Gulf are part of the racket.

Everyday, newspapers carry dozens of notifications about lost or stolen passports. A large number of these passports actually end up in the hands of those involved in passport racketeering, investigators say.

 

Posted on: 2010-01-23 04:27

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