37 passports procured using fake documents, says Home Minister

A total of 37 passports are found to have been procured by submitting fake documents in the State, Home Minister K J George told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.

Cases have been booked against 76 people in this regard.

In a written reply to B N Vijayakumar of the BJP, the minister provided details of all the 37 cases and the people involved.

The cases have been registered mainly in Bangalore, Gulbarga, Hubli-Dharwad, Kushalnagar (Kodagu district), Mangalore, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Mandya, Shimoga and Yadgir.

George said that a case had been filed against one Mohammed Haneef at Virajpet police station and against D A Liaquat Ali at Kushalnagar police station.

Investigations have revealed that they were behind the passport racket. No other persons have been traced yet.

The fake documents include false SSLC and other school certificates, false birth certificates, wrong addresses, procuring two passports for one individual and so on.

Replying to another question, the minister said that no terrorist was found involved in the said cases.

Threat calls

The home minister said the government was aware that underworld gangsters were making threat calls to businessmen and influential people. He conceded that gangs making extortion bids had increased.

Replying to V Sunil Kumar (BJP), George said the details of all the cases could not be divulged. He said gangsters looked for publicity so that they could extend their activities.

“Even I am facing a life threat. (But) I am not sacred…’’ the minister said without giving details of the caller.

Sunil said Udupi businessmen and others had been scared because of threat calls and the situation was scary. Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri (BJP) said that even police officers were receiving threat calls. But George sought to play it down:

“No one gets scared just because they get threat calls. Even I am facing threats. Birth is accidental and death is imminent. The police are not scared either.”

In Udupi alone, as many as 22 cases of threat calls made through the Internet from abroad have been recorded in the last three years. Twelve people have been arrested in four cases. They are being interrogated about underworld elements.

The assistance of Interpol has also been taken, he added. Sunil said that even areca nut growers were getting threat calls because prices of the drupe had shot up sharply.

His partyman Jagadish Shettar said that such threats were not restricted to Udupi. George said the police would be instructed to take immediate action if complaints about extortion or threat calls were received.

Source: deccanherald