New Delhi: Just days after BJP MP Babubhai Katara's arrest for trying to take a woman out of the country on his wife's passport, a special investigation by CNN-IBN has revealed that the racket of fake passports runs much deeper and that the passport racket can help just about anybody get a passport made without any verification right in the national capital of Delhi.



In spite of increased security surveillance across the world against terrorist elements, the CNN-IBN investigation showed how easy it is to get a Nepali passport made right from Indian soil. Shockingly, this is possible even if the passport-seeker happens to be a terrorist or a underworld don.

During the investigation, the CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team got in touch with a tout in an effort to get a Nepali passport made for a wanted terrorist. The face chosen for the purpose happened to be that of Zahoor Iqbal Mistry, the mastermind behind the hijacking of IC-814 from Kathmandu in 1999.



It was this hijacking that had forced the Indian Government to release dreaded terrorist Azhar Mehmood. Mistry is on CBI's most wanted list. There is also an Interpol red corner notice out for him, which means police forces across the world are keeping a watch for this man. But the tout has no clue of this.


To get things moving, the CNN-IBN team first got a meeting fixed with the tout at Connaught Place, the heart of New Delhi, at 12 noon. The tout was a tall Nepali man, named Dharma Kumar Poudel. He is known to be a major player in the passport racket. Dharma wasted no time and promised to get things done if the price he sought was given.


CNN-IBN: These people say, if we adopt a Nepali name, it will be fool-proof. This name may be a problem.

Dharma: No, no problem.

CNN-IBN: We want it on our names only.

Dharma: Yes, it can be made on your names. Things can move fast if you give the money.


Dharma said he can get everything made, be it a passport or a visa. He then asked for an advance.


Dharma: If you give me the money today, I will get things moving. Nobody works without cash. What if I get a passport made and you don't show up?

CNN-IBN: OK fine. I will give you the photographs tomorrow at 5 PM.

Dharma: At 5, it will be sunny here!
The CNN-IBN reporters told him that they were not carrying the photos for the passport. To make Dharma comfortable, they assured him to get two passport photos made the very next day. After some tough bargaining, a deal was struck for two passports at a cost of Rs 60,000.


Next time, when the CNN-IBN team met Dharma, they gave him the photograph of Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry. Dharma then showed them a blank passport and explained how top bureaucrats and politicians from Nepal supply such blank passports to touts like him.


The touts simply paste whatever photographs are given to them, put in a Nepali-sounding name and get them duly authenticated from Nepal by officials from top to bottom in the administration in return for a share of the money they collect.

When Dharma asked for a name to go with Mistry's photo, the CNN-IBN team gave the name as Sudhir Khandekar.

CNN-IBN: Here are the photos for the passports

Dharma: This is not yours?

CNN-IBN: I told you it is my brother's.

Dharma: OK. His name is Sudhir Khandekar?

CNN-IBN: Yes

Dharma: Father's name?

CNN-IBN: BK Khandekar, 'B' for Bombay.

Dharma: Date of birth?

CNN-IBN: 31 August, 1971.

Dharma: This is a blank passport. Your name will come here. Either your own name or whatever other name you want.

CNN-IBN: It can be made in Sudhir's name, right?

Dharma: Yes, but it will be an older passport.

CNN-IBN: Older passport?

Dharma: Like I told you, we will just show expired passports as renewed.

The CNN-IBN team then gave Dharma Rs 10,000. That money was paid off immediately. Once fully assured of the deal, Dharma made an even more startling claim that he can even get genuine Indian passports made.

The CNN-IBN team had to wait for the tout to deliver. But it wasn't a long wait. His call came the very next day. Dharma called the CNN-IBN team back to Connaught Place and after tea and some small talk, he produced the Nepali passport for 'most wanted terrorist' Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry; stamped, signed and ready to be delivered. It was bearing the name of Sudhir Khandekar.

It took just four meetings and Rs 30,000 in cash and the man most wanted across to the world could now fly in and out of anywhere with a new identity on a perfectly legal passport as a Nepalese citizen.

Source: http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/04_2007/exclusive-passport-racket-runs-deeper-39282.html