November 3rd 2025.
The Enforcement Directorate, a central investigation agency, carried out raids on Monday at an online passport application center located opposite the Passport Seva Kendra in Kolkata. This was part of their ongoing investigation into a fake passport racket that is suspected to have connections with a Pakistani national. According to sources within the ED, their officers collected some vital information during their visit to the passport office. It is believed that these online application centers, which are situated outside the passport office, may have played a role in facilitating the creation of fake passports through corrupt means.
Earlier in the day, the ED also conducted a raid at the residence of a carpenter named Biplab Sarkar in Chakdaha, a village in the Nadia district. The members of his household were also questioned during the raid. It has been reported that Biplab's brother Binanda Sarkar was also present during the raid. Later, both brothers, along with another person named Bipul Sarkar, were arrested by the ED. In addition, one individual from Nadia was also brought to the ED office in Kolkata for further investigation.
The ED team arrived at Chakdaha in the morning and immediately proceeded to Biplab Sarkar's house. They wasted no time in searching his modest clay house. The focus of their investigation is how these fraudulent passports were being created and used. They are also trying to determine if any of Biplab's family members were involved in this illegal activity.
It has been revealed that around 350 fake passport applications were made from Indu Bhushan's cyber cafe in Chakdaha, who was arrested last month. Based on this information, the ED conducted the raid at Sarkar's house on Monday. Despite being a carpenter by profession, the investigators are looking into whether Biplab has any connections with Bangladesh. This suspicion arose because Indu Bhushan was also involved in producing fake photo identity cards in the past.
The ED officials are currently scrutinizing Biplab's travel history and bank transactions. They are also examining the documents and passports of his brother and other family members. Their travel history is also being thoroughly checked, along with the source of their passports. The investigators are also going through Biplab's mobile phone records for any potential leads.
Sources have revealed that Biplab Sarkar's name came up during the interrogation of Indu Bhushan Halder, who was arrested last month for assisting foreigners in obtaining Indian identity documents in exchange for money. It is worth noting that a Pakistani citizen named Azad Mallick was also arrested earlier this year in connection with the fake passport case.
The ED had previously conducted searches in the India-Bangladesh border area of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts during Mallick's arrest. Today's raid is also based on information gathered from the same sources. The investigation into this fake Indian passport racket, which operates from West Bengal, was initially started by the state police towards the end of last year. They had made multiple arrests in this case. However, the ED took over the investigation later due to the involvement of money laundering.
In April, the ED had a major breakthrough in the case when they apprehended Azad Mullick. It was discovered that besides running the hawala and fake Indian passport rackets, Mullick was also involved in arranging fake visas for foreign countries in exchange for money. The state police had already filed a chargesheet, naming 130 individuals as accused, out of which 120 were illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. A lookout notice has also been issued against them.
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