Varanasi: An Afghan national was arrested from the passport office here while trying to obtain an Indian passport on the basis of fake documents.
Ibadatullah alias Abid was held from the passport office in Varanasi’s Mahmoorganj area on Saturday.
The fake documents were provided to Abid by Alam of the Phulpur area in Azamgarh and he has also been arrested.
Superintendent of Police (SP) city Dinesh Kumar Singh said that the police are now probing the racket of arranging fake documents.
According to the police, Abid, along with youth, reached shops providing services of filling on-line application for the passport on Friday afternoon.
Since he could not converse in English or Hindi, the shopkeepers guided him to the passport office.
At the passport office, the employees found his behavior suspicious and alerted the police.
The police reached there and a translator was also called in.
Abid said he belonged to Afghanistan and disclosed that he befriended Alam through Facebook.
He said that he met Alam and showed his interest in seeing the urban and rural India.
He also divulged that his Aadhar and voter ID card was arranged by Alam.
Alam told the police that Abid was interested in getting an Indian passport for which a minimum of two documents related to nationality and other details of individuals were needed.
On Saturday evening, the police raided Alam’s house in Phoolpur area and took him under custody for further investigation.
The police initially recovered the passport-visa of Abid in Azamgarh. The name of one Mohd Javed, who had never applied for a passport, was used and the Afghan national got voter ID card in the name of Javed along with his personal details using Abid’s photograph.
On the same basis, Alam got an Aadhar card made for Abid.
The role of the staff and officials concerned is also being investigated.