The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has started tracking individuals whose fake Indian identity documents, including passports, were arranged by Azad Mullick, the Pakistani infiltrator arrested in Kolkata.
According to sources, the ED officials had secured the names of around 200 individuals whose fake passports were arranged by Mullick. He used to run parallel rackets of fake Indian passports and hawala from his rented accommodation on the northern outskirts of Kolkata before he was arrested earlier this year.
The ED officials suspect that some of these individuals, who got fake Indian passports arranged by Mullick, have links with fundamentalist and terror outfits operating from Pakistan. The investigating officials have definite clues that some individuals, for whom Azad forged fake documents, entered West Bengal either through Bangladesh or Nepal.
Subsequently, the sources added, they established contact with Azad through the latter's agent network, and finally, fake Indian identity documents, including Indian passports, were arranged for them.
In such cases, the same pattern was followed, where the illegal infiltrators were first provided with safe shelters at the different villages adjacent to the borders with Bangladesh in the state, both land and coastal, and subsequently the agents arranged for fake birth certificates and fake ration cards for them, which is the first step for making other identity documents.
Through the fake ration cards and birth certificates, other Indian identity documents like the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), Permanent Account Number (PAN), and AADHAAR were prepared for them.
The last step was arranging fake passports for them based on these other fake identity documents. The ED officials secured information about such individuals after decoding messages from the individual and group chats in WhatsApp of Azad.
Azad's original name as a Pakistani citizen was Azad Hossain, which he changed to Ahammed Hossain Azad when he managed Bangladeshi citizenship through unfair means. Finally, in the fake Indian passport, which he managed through unfair means, his name was mentioned as Azad Mullick.
During his arrest, two fake EPIC cards, multiple fake driving licenses, and four fake birth certificates were also seized by the investigating officials from his possession.