Mumbai: CBI books 14 people including passport officials, agents; searches multiple locations in state

Representational Pic/File

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday said that it has registered 12 cases against 14 officials including Passport Assistants/Sr. Passport Assistants posted at Passport Sews Kendras (PSKs) of Lower Parel and Malad in Mumbai, and at least 18 passport facilitation agents/touts.

The CBI said that the cases were registered on allegations that the officials posted at PSK, Lower Parel, Mumbai and PSK Malad, Mumbai were working under Regional Passport Office (RPO) Mumbai, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Govt. of India are indulging in collusive corruption with agents/touts.

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"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," the CBI said.

The central agency said that on 26.06.2024, Joint Surprise Checks (JSC) were conducted at PSK, Parel and PSK, 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 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.

It said that the suspects, 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 said that it conducted searches at about 33 locations of accused public servants and accused private persons situated at Mumbai and Nashik district of Maharashtra which led to the recovery of several incriminating documents and digital evidence pertaining to passport documents, etc. Further investigation is being done.