Tainted officials back in office

Arjun Raghunath
The New Indian Express
Dec. 31

Raising many an eyebrow, two officials of the Regional Passport Office in Thiruvananthapuram who were arrested the other day for their involvement in seven separate case of fake passport rackets, are back in office.

Shamji B.Singh and Ajith Kumar, two assistants at the Passport office, who are accused in separate cases of issuing about 100 fake passports are still continuing in office, even after the police informed the Passport Officer about the involvement of the two in the case. The two were arrested by the Kollam Special Branch last week. They are now on conditional bail.

Police sources said that the two officials, who are arraigned as sixth and seventh accused in the cases, had prima faice played a key role in the racket and hence their continuing in the office may even lead to destruction of evidences. The two are now on conditional bail and they are directed by the court to appear before the investigationfficer on all Wednesdays, Kollam Special Branch DySP Chandrasekharan said.

When contacted by Express, Passport Officer B.S.R.Nair said that the involvement of the two officials have been reported to the higher ups. The two had reported for duty on Monday. There is no provision to stop them from working until there is any direction form the higher-ups or they are charge sheeted. The two officials were earlier working in the counters. But now they are not deployed at the counter, he said.

Shamji and Ajith had earlier approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case. But the High Court refused to grant bail and directed the two to surrender before the police. Subsequently, the two surrendered before the Kollam Special Branch police last week. The police had produced them at the local court and the court granted conditional bail to the two.

Police sources said that Shamji and Ajith were found to have played a key role in the racket. They had extended all favours to the key accused in the racket, Abdul Rasheed who operated a travel agency near the Regional Passport Office, in issuing passports in bogus names. So far we had collected evidence that about 100 fake passports were arranged by the racket.

Kollam Special Branch sub-inspector Al Jabbar said that besides the Passport office staff and travel agents, several Postal Department officials and advocates are also involved in the racket. Three Notaries based in Thiruvananthapuram, identified as P.Radhakrishnan, S.Kumari and Padmakumari, are suspected to have involvement in the racket. The three are learnt to have approached the High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

Ends