Lax verification helps criminals escape

Militants and criminals are still obtaining passports on fake information with the help of some unscrupulous policemen and officials of the passport department.

Negligence and dishonesty of a section of field-level policemen, tasked with police verification for passport, and some officials of the Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) help criminals get passports and flee the country, said police.

Police and passport department officials said under a current provision, the passport department is bound to issue a passport to an applicant if the police verification report is not available within a stipulated time. This gives criminals an opportunity to obtain a passport on false information.

Issuance of fake passports had been rampant in the past, but the number has come down significantly following the introduction of machine readable passports (MRP), said Monirul Islam, chief of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

“We cannot say that issuance of fake passports has stopped completely,” he told The Daily Star last night.

At least two dared militants -- Sarwar Jahan and Redwanul Azad Rana -- had collected MRPs on fake information, raising concern among the law enforcement agencies.

Top “Neo JMB” leader Sarwar Jahan whom the Rapid Action Battalion claimed to be “Neo JMB” chief Abu Ibrahim al Hanif, managed to get a passport using a fake name, Abdur Rahman, and address.

Sarwar allegedly jumped to his death from a building in Ashulia on the outskirts of the capital during a raid by the Rab on October 8 last year.

The Rab recovered a fake passport and a driving licence from his flat. His passport was issued on September 10, 2014, which contained his name as Abdur Rahman, father's name as Abdullah and permanent address as Kushkhali of Satkhira Sadar upazila.

However, the address was later found to be false. His parents Abdul Mannan and Saleha Khatun of Thumribhuja village in Chapainawabganj's Bholahat upazila later identified their son from a picture.

He also used a fake name in the driving licence.

Preferring anonymity, a Rab official yesterday told The Daily Star that the police official who verified the information Abdur Rahman used in his passport application recommended the DIP not to issue any passport to him as the information was found to be false.

“But a passport was issued to him mysteriously. We believe an official of the passport department might have helped him getting the passport. We are investigating the matter,” he said.

ATM Abu Asad, director of the DIP, said they were yet to receive any complaint about issuance of a fake passport to Sarwar Jahan.

“If we receive any complaint, we'll investigate the matter and take punitive actions against any officials for any wrongdoing,” he told this newspaper.

Redwanul Azad Rana, a key organiser of the banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team, was sentenced to death for planning and killing blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider. He obtained a passport with fake present and permanent addresses, police said.

He fled to Malaysia soon after killing Rajib on February 15, 2013 using the fake passport. The law enforcers did not know his identity until then.

CTTC chief Monirul said although Rana is from Feni, he mentioned Gazipur as his permanent addresses and Dhaka as the present address in his passport.

As the CTTC supplied information and picture of Rana to Malaysian detectives in 2014 and asked them to arrest him, they recently arrested and deported the suspect to Bangladesh, Monirul added.

A CTTC team arrested him along with of his associates named Ashraf from the capital's Uttara area on Monday.

“Now we are verifying how he had collected the passport on fake information,” Monirul said, adding that those who helped him getting a fake passport would be identified and brought to justice.

As per rules, a passport office issues a passport only after getting a police verification report that the information provided by the applicant is genuine.

However, there are allegations that police, in many cases, take bribes from applicants and submit the report without verifying the information properly.

Besides, there are complaints that applicants bribe passport department officials to obtain a passport with fake information.

DIP Director Asad said cops are supposed to file the police verification report to his office within 15 days under the urgent service category. If police fail to come up with the report within the stipulated time, the DIP issues the passport.

He said if police share its criminal database with the DPI, it would be able to check any passport applicant's criminal records beforehand.

“If anyone has any criminal record or is accused in any case of militant activity, we would not issue a passport to him,” Asad said.

Police should continue updating its criminal database and update the passport office so that it can cancel any passport if the owner committed any grievous offence, he told The Daily Star.

TWO REMANDED

A Dhaka court yesterday granted five-day remand each for Rana and Ashraf in a case filed under the Anti-terrorism Act after police produced them before it, seeking 10-day remand each, said court sources.

Police filed the case with Uttara West Police Station accusing the two of planning subversive activities.

The remand prayer mentioned that the accused met in front of the Baitul Noor mosque in Uttara to plan subversive activities. About 4-5 other participants of the “secret meeting” fled the scene.