Lucknow: After three passports were recovered from possession of slain terror suspect Saifullah here, the UP ATS launched a crackdown on fake travel documents and today arrested a gang involved in the clandestine trade.
Inspector General UP Anti-Terror Squad Asim Arun said, “Fake passports can affect national security. Acting on specific tip-off, a number of teams were formed, which found that agents in collusion with some officials of the passport office are making fake documents.”
He said the ATS arrested six persons today. They are Mohammad Maroof, Mohammad Faizal, Mohammad Javed Naqvi, Arman Khan, Mohammad Shoaib Ansari and Kulvinder Singh.
“As many as 73 passports, a laptop, a printer and other documents were recovered from them,” he said.
All the arrested persons are from Lucknow, the UP ATS said.
The UP ATS also mentioned that people who go to some of the countries for jobs, have to undergo emigration checks.
“In the absence of ECNR stamp on the passports, people could not go for jobs in these countries,” the UP ATS said.
The countries are Bahrain, Brunei, Kuwait, Jordan, Libya, Oman, Qatae, Saudi Arab and UAE.
Fake marksheets of class 10 were made so as to facilitate ECNR.
“Some of the officials of the passport office are also under the scanner of the ATS and they will be arrested soon,” the IG ATS added.
Saifullah, suspected to have been influenced by the ISIS, was killed on the outskirts of Lucknow earlier this month after a 12-hour police operation in the wake of the Ujjain-Bhopal train blast.
His body was found with weapons lying next to him.
Besides three passports, the UP police had found a compass, batteries, six mobile phones, 45 gram of gold, foreign currency and literature in Urdu and English.
—PTI