Kolkata, April 15 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Tuesday, have arrested the kingpin of a racket operating from West Bengal and engaged in arranging fake Indian passports for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

The arrested person has been identified as Alok Nath. He has been arrested by the ED officials near the international borders of Gede in the Nadia district of West Bengal.

Nath was brought to the ED’s office at the central government office (CGO) complex at Salt Lake in Kolkata on Tuesday following his arrest.

The ED officials conducted raid and search operations at multiple locations in Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, and Nadia districts in connection with the central agency’s investigation of the money-laundering in the fake passport case.

Sources said the ED officials interrogated Nath for around 13 hours, and he was formally arrested and brought to the ED office at Salt Lake.

Sources added that the investigating officials also seized several incriminating papers and digital documents from the office of Nath, including his laptop and two of his mobile phones.

Last month, Kolkata Police filed a charge sheet in the case at a lower court in Kolkata, where it was mentioned that of the 130 individuals mentioned in the document, 120 are Bangladeshi residents and the remaining are Indian nationals.

The main charges against the Bangladeshi nationals are that they paid huge money to secure fake Indian passports.

The charges against the accused Indian nationals are that they played the roles of facilitators for arranging fake Indian identity documents, including Indian passports, for these illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Earlier, Kolkata Police arrested Abdul Hai, a retired Assistant Sub-Inspector of the city police. The details of Hai's involvement in the matter were also mentioned in the charge sheet.

It contained details of Hai's financial gain through these 52 police verification clearances, where he was the on-ground inquiry or verification officer.

--IANS

src/dan