Inside a city apartment on BT Road near Khardah Bazar, investigators from India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) seized documents that reveal a local transport businessman, Vinod Gupta, has flown abroad 900 times in just a decade.
The ED says it discovered the numbers during a search of Gupta’s flat on Tuesday evening. A quick review of the papers showed that most of his trips ended in Bangkok, where he allegedly ran a foreign‑currency exchange business without proper paperwork.
“Why did he leave for Bangkok almost twice a week, and for what purpose?” the investigators asked. They are now summoning Gupta for questioning.
This raid is part of a larger crackdown on a fake passport racket that has been running out of West Bengal for more than a year. In late last year, the West Bengal Police uncovered the scheme and later handed the case over to the ED, who focused on potential money‑laundering links.
The ED has already raided other sites. A separate operation targeted an online passport‑application centre located across from the Passport Seva Kendra in Kolkata, where officers suspect the center played a role in producing counterfeit documents.
Earlier this month, investigators raided the home of a carpenter, Biplab Sarkar, in Chakdaha, Nadia district. Sarkar, his brother Binanda and another individual were arrested. Biplab’s name came up while questioning Indu Bhushan Halder, a middleman jailed last month for selling Indian identity documents to foreigners in exchange for money.
The case has seen several high‑profile arrests. Pakistani citizen Azad Mallick was detained earlier this year, and in April the ED nabbed Azad Mullick, who not only ran hawala and fake‑visa operations but also supplied fake Indian passports.
Police authorities have filed charge sheets against 130 people, including 120 alleged illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, and issued a lookout notice for them. The ongoing investigation continues to sweep the India‑Bangladesh border region, targeting the network that defrauds both Indian and foreign travelers.
Source: ianslive
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