Ahmedabad: The city crime branch has revealed that 40 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, who had fraudulently secured Indian passports, have now disappeared — triggering an extensive search across the state. This revelation emerged during an ongoing investigation into a widespread passport fraud scheme involving Bangladeshi nationals residing illegally in India.

An FIR is expected to be registered soon. It has also been learned that over 500 suspicious passports remain under investigation. According to reports, some of these illegal immigrants pose a significant risk to national security, especially given that sleeper cells linked to Al-Qaeda (Bangladesh) were previously nabbed in the same settlements where these Bangladeshis lived.

The scam, first exposed in early 2024, involves a well-organized network of middlemen and document forgers who provided fake Aadhaar cards, ration cards, and other identity papers, allowing Bangladeshi nationals to pose as Indian citizens and obtain passports.

Earlier this month, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested two key figures in the network — Mohammed Didarul Alam alias Rana Sarkar and Soeb Mohammed. Sarkar, a Bangladeshi national himself, not only secured a passport using forged documents but also helped several others do the same.

Senior crime branch officials shared that they had handed over details of around 550 potentially fraudulent passports to the passport office and the FRRO. Based on input from these agencies, a cross-check of addresses revealed that 40 individuals were untraceable. According to the police, the administration is treating this matter with utmost seriousness, and a full-scale investigation is underway to locate these absconders.

Both the Gujarat ATS and the crime branch are intensifying their efforts to track down the missing immigrants and dismantle the broader identity fraud network. Investigators are also expected to question insiders and local agents who may have overlooked or ignored forged documents during the verification process. DeshGujarat