Woman heading passport racket held with 6 aides

Speaking to reporters, Superintendent of Police P Cephas Kalyan said that when the Thuraiyur inspector went to Maruthruvar village for the passport verification of an applicant, M Senthil, found that there was no such person in the area in that name. 

Later, police contacted Senthil over phone and asked him to complete the verification process. Subsequently, Senthil came to the Thuraiyur police station and produced records that stated his name as B Ramesh of Paravakottai in Tiruvarur district. Documents like Aadhaar card, ration card and voter’s ID card that he produced were all found to be bogus. 

Following this, Ramesh was grilled and during interrogations he told the cops that he had already been to Singapore using a fake passport. He overstayed there and was arrested after which he returned to India. Using the same modus operandi, he again attempted to go to Singapore. 

Acting on the leads given by him, police arrested Kalaiselvi (40), Balakrishnan of Thillai Nagar, Ramesh and Udhayakumar, an agent at a travels company. 

The arrested have been booked under various sections including, the IPC section 465 (Forgery), 468 (forgery of documents) and Indian Passport act-1967. Police said that Ramesh offered Rs 20,000 and Udhayakumar, manipulated the proof documents using photoshop. 

They added that one of the brokers, Vijayakumar of Thuraiyur, who gave the address and the fake name, was also arrested. 

“The gang had a vast network and the main accused Kalaiselvi had made three fake passports to applicants from Madurai and one for another person from Tiruvarur,” said Cephas Kalyan. Further investigations are on.