The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has submitted a charge sheet against Ahmed Hussain Azad, also known as Azad Malik, a Pakistani national residing in Kolkata. He has been implicated in running a fraudulent racket that provided Indian identity documents to Bangladeshi nationals. According to the ED's statement, Azad operated a hawala network facilitating illegal cross-border money transfers between India and Bangladesh, collecting payments in cash and via UPI, and subsequently transferring equivalent amounts to Bangladesh using platforms like BKash.

The charge sheet under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was filed on June 13 in a special court in Kolkata, which has already acknowledged the case. The ED's investigation is based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed by the West Bengal police under sections 14 and 14A of the Foreigners Act, 1946. The financial crime investigation agency had previously conducted raids on April 15 and arrested Azad in Birati, North 24 Parganas.

In a statement released on Monday, the ED noted that the 53-year-old Azad was initially believed to be a Bangladeshi citizen but was found to be living in India without valid documents. He was involved in creating fraudulent Indian passports and other documents for illegal immigrants in exchange for money. Earlier in April, the agency revealed that his two sons, Osama bin Azad and Umar Farooq, along with his wife Maymuna Akhtar, reside in Bangladesh and are citizens of that country. Azad reportedly traveled frequently to Bangladesh to visit his family.