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This is an archive article published on June 6, 2011
Passport case: 1 more held,address forger still at large
Unearthing more links in the passport case,Pune police on Saturday arrested one Abhay Krishna Lokhande and are on the lookout for his accomplice for allegedly forging identity papers and address proofs of people who wanted passports but did not have the required documents. Lokhande,a resident of Gokhalenagar,is the sixth to be arrested in the case and the absconding accused has been identified as Rajnish Gujar.
2 min readJun 6, 2011 01:53 AM IST
Unearthing more links in the passport case,Pune police on Saturday arrested one Abhay Krishna Lokhande (24) and are on the lookout for his accomplice for allegedly forging identity papers and address proofs of people who wanted passports but did not have the required documents. Lokhande,a resident of Gokhalenagar,is the sixth to be arrested in the case and the absconding accused has been identified as Rajnish Gujar.
The racket had come to light after the arrest of Digambar Ghorpade,a constable attached to the Bundgarden police station,after he allegedly helped suspected Dawood gang member Sajid Batliwala procure a passport under a fake name and address. Passport agent Inayatali Abdul Hariyani was arrested along with Ghorpade on May 23. The arrest of model Jiya Chopra (22),dancer Vedika Shivsagar (22) and another passport agent,Arvind Rajendra Bhat (32),followed,in Mumbai.
As per the remand application by Assistant Commissioner of Police (Lashkar Division) M M Makanadar,Hariyani used to give the name of the person who wanted a passport to one Rajnish Gujar,who used to make forged documents such as electricity bill,PAN card,bank statement,driving license,PMC tax receipts and even school leaving certificate in his/her name.
Investigations reveal that based on these forged documents,Ghorpade used to get police verification done by forging signatures of a senior police officer. Besides Jiya and Vedika,40 others are believed to have procured passports on fake addresses. Makandar said,“More facts about Lokhande and his links with Gujar will come to fore after we interrogate him further.” Police have launched a comprehensive search operation for Gujar.
After Ghorpade’s arrest along with passport agent Hariyani,the duo revealed the names of six persons from Mumbai and Ahmedabad,who were allegedly involved. The remand application said the police will be investigating links between Lokhande and the six accused,Rahim Duka,Ramzan Charbhi,Ashfaq Patel,Jitu Patel,Salim Shaikh and Paresh Patel. The police are also examining the documents of 4,582 passports verified by Ghorpade when he was attached to the passport section of Bund Garden police station between December 2007 and January 2011.
Lokhande was remanded in police custody till June 8,on Sunday.
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