Will passport application nail fake maulana?

Cops to scrutinise documents used by Johar Alam Mohammad (38), a forger and suspected Bangladeshi arrested on Tuesday, to obtain his passport

Pune police is trying hard to ferret out the 10-year old passport application made by alleged forger and suspected Bangladeshi national Maulana Johar Alam Mohammad (38), who was arrested from Yerwada on Tuesday. The police want to scrutinize the documents used by the Maulana to obtain the passport issued to him by the Pune Passport Office in 1999. Maulana, incidentally, used the passport to travel to various countries, including Bangladesh.u00a0u00a0

Regional Passport Officer TD Sharma said computerised data on passport applications was only available from 2004 onwards. "It will be difficult to know if the Maulana had submitted proper documents back then," Sharma said. The police said that Mohammad, who has had no formal education, was found in possession of a bogus mark list, BA degree, and school-leaving certificate.

Pune police DCP (crime) Anil Kumbhare told this reporter that Maulana'su00a0 travel to Bangladesh did not prove anything. "He had traveled to Bangladesh with a valid passport twice," he said.u00a0

The Maulana reportedly told cops that he had visited Bangladesh merely as a tourist. ACP (crime) Sangramsingh Nishandhar said there was no reason to suspect that the man had terror links just because he visited Bangladesh. "We have initiated the process of scruitinising papers he submitted to obtain his passport. We can only draw our conclusions after we are through with this," he said.