Guilty in Army passport scam will not be spared, must set example: Antony

The Minister added that the probe into the fake passports scam was handed over to the CBI last week to “get to the truth” after discussions with the Army Chief. “The matter was discussed with the Army Chief and he had no objections to the (CBI) inquiry,” he said.The CBI filed an FIR against Brigadier HPS Bedi — the Deputy Director General of Army’s Ceremonial and Welfare Directorate — after it came to light that an unauthorised diplomatic passport had been issued to him. The wife of a Colonel posted in the same directorate has also been booked for having an unauthorised official ‘White’ passport on her name.

The main accused in the scam, Lance Naik Suresh Babu, has also been booked by the CBI for forging and selling official passports to illegal immigrants through a tout. Initial inquires indicate that Babu used his position as a ‘handy man’ in the Directorate to forge official passports on at least two occasions.

Babu, who was part of the Army Headquarters Band, procured at least 20 official passports that were meant for ‘standby personnel’ of the band on trips to Chile and Germany. While the Army’s internal inquiry suggests that Babu forged documents to procure passports for ‘appeasing’ senior officers in the directorate, the CBI is probing whether the racket is part of a larger human trafficking scam.