Gang forging passports for gangsters busted with 3 arrests

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP), Gaurav Yadav, said that Friday’s crackdown came after the police received reliable human inputs about an inter-state gang of travel agents that was involved in preparing passports using fake particulars to help gangsters/criminals to flee from the law of the country. AGTF teams, headed by ADGP Promod Ban and assisted by AIG Sandeep Goel, conducted an overnight operation and busted the gang and arrested three of its members.

“Investigations so far has revealed that this gang had links in various states including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Kolkata, Gujarat and Maharashtra, and had helped a number of gangsters/criminals from Punjab and other states to flee from the country on fake passports,” he said.

The DGP said that the police teams have rounded-up five more people linked to this gang and further investigations are on to unearth the entire network.

Giving more details, ADGP Promod Ban said that accused Onkar, who runs an illegal immigration firm in Jalandhar, was involved in making passports for gangster/criminals using fake particulars and duping innocent people on the pretext of sending them abroad. He said that during questioning, Onkar so far had disclosed that he had procured passports on fake particulars for gangsters like Varinder Pal Singh alias Veena Butter (Bambiha gang) and Jaswinder Singh alias Khattu (Dharminder Gugni gang involved in the target killings in Punjab), to help them flee the country. During preliminary interrogation, accused Prabhjot Singh has revealed that one of his contacts, Charanjit Singh alias Bareilly (who has been arrested by Delhi Police), had made a passport using fake particulars for gangster Deepak Boxer, who was recently deported from Mexico.

The third accused Sukhjinder Singh alias Sharpy Ghumman has told the police that he had procured a passport on fake particulars for Deepinder Singh alias Deepu of Ajnala, who has a criminal background and is an associate of absconding gangster Harry Chatha.

A case under sections 420 (cheating), 468 (cheating for purpose of forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal, etc., with intent to commit forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 25 of the Arms Act, along with Section 12 of the Passport Act was registered at the state crime branch police station in Mohali.

All the arrested accused were produced in Mohali district court on Friday and remanded to seven days of police custody