Ahmedabad: Ten cases of fake or tampered passports and documents have come to light in the past eight months at the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in the city following a significant software upgrade.

Officials said some passports carried a photograph of one person, while the name, address, and even biometric fingerprints belonged to another. All cases have been reported to the police and are under investigation. The passport system was upgraded in May 2025 to speed up processing and strengthen security checks, enabling instant detection of discrepancies.

In December 2025, an applicant who already held a valid passport tried to obtain another under a different identity by altering Aadhaar details. In another case, an applicant was found holding two passports under different names during the Police Clearance Certificate process. Officials said police complaints are filed in such cases, applications are put on hold, and passports are cancelled after verification.

It is learnt that many attempts are linked to illegal immigration networks or individuals trying to evade police or court cases by changing identities.

Under Passport Seva Programme 2.0 and the rollout of chip-enabled e-passports, key benefits include faster processing, RFID-based biometric security, upgraded online services with easy payments, and 24/7 AI chatbot and voice-bot assistance. Authorities said the new high-tech system is helping detect such fraud instantly. DeshGujarat