Haryana Police Exposes Passport Forgery Ring; 77 Passports Revoked

Gurgaon: Haryana Police has requested regional passport officers (RPOs) in Delhi, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Amritsar and Ghaziabad to revoke a total of 77 passports that its investigations showed were issued based on forged documents.Investigators said among those involved in the nexus to have passports issued through forged documents was a Delhi Police SI responsible for passport verification in Ashok Nagar.Of the 77 passports, 46 were issued by Delhi RPO, six by Ghaziabad RPO, 10 in Chandigarh, six in Dehradun, two in Bareilly, five in Amritsar, and two in Lucknow.The network was exposed last year when Haryana Special Task Force (STF) received a tip-off that Ankit Narwal, an aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, had obtained a passport using a fake Delhi address and was planning to flee the country.IPL Auction 2026IPL Auction 2026: Full list of sold and unsold players for all teamsIPL 2026 team and squad List: Updated players for all 10 Teams; who got whomNarwal, who is from Sonipat's Kathura, was arrested and an FIR was registered on Dec 14, 2024 at Baroda police station in Sonipat. As the probe unfolded, it was found that the Delhi Police SI involved in passport verification in Ashok Nagar was in criminal conspiracy with agents orchestrating the racket.The investigation also revealed involvement of 70-year-old Bijender Kumar Jain, a passport agent from Delhi's Shahdara.He has been accused of facilitating issuance of 43 of the 77 forged passports. Jain charged up to Rs 3 lakh per passport.Investigators found that Jain had a prearranged agreement with the SI. When an applicant approached Jain, he would contact the SI, who then instructed him or her to prepare documents for addresses within his jurisdiction, primarily in East Delhi's Ashok Nagar, to ensure police clearance. The officer charged around Rs 40,000 for providing these addresses and approving verification.To procure forged documents required for the passports, Jain roped in Sunny Kumar from UP's Saharanpur. Sunny produced fake Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, birth certificates, and marksheets of classes 10 and 12 using CorelDRAW software for Rs 1,500 per document. For counterfeit bank statements, Jain turned to Mohammad Junaid alias Sonu from Shahdara, who also arranged fake rent agreements and address proofs. Based on these papers, Jain submitted passport applications, cops said.Once the passports were dispatched to post offices, Jain and other agents collected them directly from post offices by presenting forged Aadhaar cards of applicants. Investigators also found that in place of postmen, who are supposed to deliver passports to applicants' homes, Jain and his associates went to the post office themselves to retrieve them. Police have arrested Jain, Sunny, from whose computer three folders containing passport details were recovered, and Junaid.Several gangsters exploited the network, said investigators. Narwal, who is previously charged with the 2019 murder of two college students in Chandigarh and facing multiple extortion cases, contacted Jain and obtained a passport from the Delhi RPO on July 26, 2024, using a fake New Ashok Nagar address. He was arrested before he could leave India.But several gangsters have managed to escape to foreign shores using forged passports.One of them is gangster Sunil Singh alias Sardhania from Sonipat, who flew to Dubai after jumping parole in Haryana, but was kidnapped by donkey route agents on the way to the US and was eventually brought back to India from Nicaragua and arrested by Haryana Police. Sardhania secured a passport on March 11, 2024, from Delhi RPO. He was involved in the shooting of singer Rahul Yadav alias Fazilpuria and the murder of the singer's associate in Gurgaon.Kunal Joon, a resident of Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar and a member of Rahul Baba gang, also escaped to Dubai and later to Almaty in Kazakhstan using a passport issued by Delhi RPO on June 13, 2013, with the Najafgarh address of his in-laws. Wanted in over 15 cases in Jhajjar and Rohtak, Joon was detained in Kazakhstan on the basis of Haryana STF efforts before being deported to India after Extradition request was sent to Kazakhstan and was later arrested by Haryana STF at IGIA in April this year.Fugitive gangster Sachin Sharma from Yamunanagar, an accused in around 20 cases, including murder and murder attempts, also used the network to obtain his passport from Delhi RPO on Feb 27, 2023. Investigators discovered that 12 women had also obtained passports through the same network.A senior officer said relaxation of passport verification norms in Dec 2016 has allowed offenders to exploit the system. Before 2016, verification officers were required to check all addresses where an applicant had lived in the previous five years and examine village crime notebooks for entries. After the rule change, an applicant only needs to disclose the address from the year preceding the application. Officers said this weakens background checks and allows criminals to conceal addresses where old cases are registered.Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here