Mumbai: The CBI on Monday arrested a junior passport assistant and an agent for allegedly facilitating the issuance of passports based on fake documents. Aakash Rathee and agent Sanjeev Rahi have been remanded to CBI custody till Friday, with the agency terming the matter a ‘threat to national security’.
The case was registered in June 2024 after a surprise check revealed that passport officials, in collusion with agents, were issuing passports using forged documents. Apart from Rathee and Rahi, the CBI has also booked junior assistant Ravi Shankar, senior assistant Kuldeep Yadav, and agents Parag Thalkar, Jitu Patil, and Pankil Marfatia.
CBI prosecutor Sandeep Singh, while seeking five days’ custody, said the agency needs to trace people who obtained passports through the accused, as it poses a serious security concern. Defence counsel Rajendra Rathod argued that the accused had been cooperating with the investigation and that arrests were unnecessary.
According to the agency, Rathee was in regular contact with multiple agents and received bribes. On June 20 last year, Rs2,500 was credited to his brother’s account by Thalkar. Further scrutiny revealed Rs1.51 lakh from Marfatia, Rs56,000 from Rahi, and Rs1 lakh from Patil had also been deposited into Rathee’s account. In total, he allegedly received Rs6 lakh in bribes.
Rathee and Rahi allegedly helped one Manoj Jadhav obtain a passport using a fake address proof and other forged documents. The passport was issued under the Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) category through the tatkal scheme.
They also facilitated a passport for Amit Salvi, despite adverse police verification. Both Jadhav and Salvi are currently untraceable, and their listed phone numbers are inactive.
The agency has also recovered incriminating chats between officials and agents discussing payments for processing such passports.
