Passport forgery: Charge sheet pressed against 71 individuals

Staff Correspondent: The Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday approved a charge sheet against eight Department of Immigration and Passport staff including two directors for forging official passports and 63 individuals for carrying those.

The DIP staff are — suspended director Munshi Muyeed Ikram, former director SM Nazrul Islam, assistant directors SM Shahjaman, Umme Kalsum and Nasrin Parvin Nupur,  suspended upper division clerks M Shahjahan Mia, N Anowerul Haque and M Saiful Islam.

ACC investigator M Shafi Ullah, also assistant director, will file the charge sheet with the respective court in Dhaka, said ACC public relations officer Pranab Kumar Bhatacharjee.

In July 206, the ACC filed a case against three DIP officials and 18 passport holders in this connection.

According to the ACC, a total of 63 official passports were issued in the process between December 2014 and May 2015 showing the passport holders as government officials through creating fake no objection certificates of different government offices.

It said that a good number of the passport holders are now staying in different countries as they left the country enjoying facilities of the government officials.

In the process of creating the passports these people created signatures of different government officers, the ACC investigation said.

According to the findings, in April 2015, the Turkey government informed the Bangladesh foreign ministry through a letter that it had detained three Bangladeshis who were carrying the Bangladesh government employees' passports even though they were not the government employees.

The DIP then investigated the matter and found the allegation to be true and initially four of its officials and employees were suspended for ‘verifying’ the passports and affixing signatures to them.

The blue cover official passport was issuing to individuals representing the Bangladesh government on official business.

Official passport holders are exempted from visa for their travels in various countries.


risingbd/Dhaka/September 27, 2018/M A Rahman/A K Azad