Passport scam: Moga cops make 5 more arrests

The Moga police have arrested nine persons in connection with the fake passport scam that rocked the district in July 2008.

Those arrested are four travel agents Mehtab Chopra of Chopson Travels,Rajiv Bansal of Evergreen Travels,Mukesh Sharma of Thandal Travels (all based in Chandigarh) and Pankaj Gautam of Swastik Travels in Moga and five persons who allegedly travelled on these fake passports. The five are Shiv Charan Das of Ghalouti village,Manjit Kaur alias Kudip Kaur of Charik village,Bubby Singh of Langiana Kala village and another who is yet to be identified. All of them belong to Moga district. The police said more arrests were likely in the coming days.

Senior Superintendent of Police Snehdeep Sharma said: The FIR was registered in 2008,after which over ten arrests have been made. We are arresting people as and when we get complete evidence against them.

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A special investigation team headed by Faridkot SP (Detective) Amrik Singh Waraich is

currently investigating the scam,which had led to issuance of lookout notices for nearly 270 people last year.

Those arrested earlier also included three constables and a postman.

The police unearthed as many as 226 fake passports made in 2006-07. The record of ten years,between 1995-1996 and 2005-2006,was also scrutinised by the investigating team.

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According to the police,the accused had taken into confidence some local postmen who delivered the fake passports to the persons concerned even though the addresses mentioned on the registered/speed post envelopes carrying these passports were false. Some policemen too acted as delivery men in some cases,the police said.

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crime