Kolkata: Azad Mullick, a suspected illegal Bangladeshi infiltrator who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in connection with a fake Indian passport case, is a citizen of Pakistan, the agency’s counsel informed a special court in Kolkata on Tuesday.
During the hearing at the special court, the ED counsel said the documents seized by the central agency officials at that time showed Mullick to be a Bangladeshi citizen.
At the time of his arrest, the documents seized also showed that Azad the owner of Mullick Trading Corporation, was not only residing in Kolkata after possessing fake Indian identity documents and passport but was also operating a hawala racket from his residence in the city.
He was also involved in a racket of providing fake Indian passports to illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The ED’s counsel informed the special court that further investigation in due course and the interrogation of Mullick revealed that he was originally a Pakistani citizen and had managed the citizenship of Bangladesh through unfair means.
According to the submission of the ED counsel, Mullick’s original name in Pakistan was Azad Hossain, which he changed to Ahammed Hossain Azad when he managed to procure a Bangladeshi citizenship through unfair means.
Finally, in the fake Indian passport which he managed through unfair means, his name was mentioned as Azad Mullick.
The ED counsel stated that two fake EPIC cards, multiple fake driving licences, and four fake birth certificates were seized by the investigating officials from his possession after his arrest.
The ED had also frozen a bank account in his name with a deposit of Rs 2.62 crore.
“Our officers are investigating whether the money was used for any sort of anti-national activities or not,” the ED counsel informed the court.
The judge of the special court granted the plea of the ED counsel to keep Mullick in the central agency’s custody till May 8.
Last month, Kolkata Police filed a charge sheet in the case of the forged passport scam at a lower court in Kolkata, where it was mentioned that of the 130 individuals mentioned in the document, 120 were Bangladeshi residents and the remaining were Indian nationals.
The main charges against the Bangladeshi nationals are that they paid huge amounts of money to secure fake Indian passports.
The charges against the accused Indian nationals are that they played the roles of facilitators for arranging fake Indian identity documents, including Indian passports, for these illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.
(IANS)
