Bangladeshi National’s Fake Passport Case Deepens; Cyber Cafe Operator, Caretaker Detained In Bhopal

Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh: The Special Task Force (STF) has detained an individual named Subhash, who was staying with a Bangladeshi national named Riyal Choudhary and serving as his caretaker. Additionally, Vijay, the operator of a nearby cyber cafe, is under interrogation. Authorities suspect that Vijay was involved in creating Aadhaar, residence, and PAN documents for Choudhary and others. Two monks from Rajasthan residing at a nearby monastery were also questioned by the STF officials.

Riyal Choudhary's activities had raised suspicions among locals living around Ashoka Buddh Vihar in Anna Nagar, where he had been staying for nearly one-and-a-half years. Neighbors noted that Choudhary primarily engaged with his mobile phone and rarely interacted with people in the neighborhood. However, he was often spotted sitting at the nearby cyber cafe.

The investigation has unveiled that Choudhary had been creating Indian identity documents while living at the monastery. These documents include an Aadhaar card, PAN card, driving license, voter ID, residence certificate, and Class 10 marksheet. Authorities believe that Choudhary was planning to bring Bangladeshi children to Bhopal for education purposes and had been preparing their Indian documents for this purpose.

A hostel with a capacity for 40 children was reportedly under construction behind the monastery for this scheme. The funding for this plan is currently under investigation.

Choudhary also allegedly collected donations under various pretexts and used them to fund the project. The recovered donation lists from the monastery show contributions ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The STF is probing potential foreign funding sources as well. Four passports belonging to Choudhary were found to have been obtained at different times by falsely claiming that he had lost his previous ones.

The STF is now verifying the details, addresses, and police verification records submitted with these applications.

Suspicious documents connected to Betul, Chhindwara, and Pandhurna, as well as over 100 other passports, are being examined. Local police are also under scrutiny, with the role of 15 officials involved in passport verification during 2021 and 2022-23 being investigated. Police Commissioner Sanjay Kumar stated that action would be taken against the responsible personnel following the STF's report.