2 accused in passport racket case back in office

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Raising many an eyebrow, two officials of the Regional Passport Office here, who were arrested the other day for their involvement in seven separate cases of fake passport rackets, are back in office.

Shamji B Singh and Ajith Kumar, two assistants at the Passport office, who are accused in separate cases of issuing about 100 fake passports, are still continuing in office, even after the police informed the Passport Officer about the involvement of the two in the case. The two were arrested by the Kollam Special Branch last week. They are now on conditional bail.

Police sources said that the two officials, who have been arraigned as sixth and seventh accused in the cases, had prima facie played a key role in the racket and hence their continuing in the office may even lead to destruction of evidence. The two are now on conditional bail and were directed by the court to appear before the investigation officer every week, Kollam Special Branch DySP Chandrasekharan said.

When contacted by Express, Passport Officer B S R Nair said that the involvement of the two had been reported to the higherups. The two had reported for duty on Monday. There is no provision to stop them from working until there is any directive from the higherups or they are chargesheeted. The two officials were earlier working in the counters. But now they are not deployed at the counters, he said. Shamji and Ajith had earlier approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case. But the High Court refused to grant bail and directed the two to surrender before the police. Subsequently, the two surrendered before the Kollam Special Branch police last week. The police had produced them in the local court and the court granted them conditional bail.

Police sources said that Shamji and Ajith were found to have played a key role in the racket. They had extended all favours to the key accused in the racket, Abdul Rasheed, who operated a travel agency near the Regional Passport Office, in issuing passports in bogus names. So far, they had collected evidence that around 100 fake passports were arranged by the racket.

Kollam Special Branch SubInspector Al Jabbar said that besides the Passport office staff and travel agents, several Postal Department officials and advocates were also involved in the racket. Three notaries based in Thiruvananthapuram, identified as P Radhakrishnan, S Kumari and Padmakumari, are suspected to be involved in the racket. The three are learnt to have approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail.