Hyderabad: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has conducted further searches at the office and residence of one more passport agent based in Mumbai. During the searches, Rs 1.59 crore in cash and other incriminating material in form of 5 diaries and digital evidence have been recovered. The CBI had registered 12 cases on June 28, 2024 against 14 officials including Passport Assistants and Senior Passport Assistants posted at Passport Seva Kendras (PSKs) of Lower Parel and Malad, and 18 passport facilitation agents on allegations that officials posted at PSKs at Lower Parel, and Malad are indulging in collusive corruption with agents. It was alleged that these officers were in regular contact with passport facilitation agents and conspiring with them to obtain undue advantage in lieu of issuance of passport based on inadequate or incomplete documents or by manipulating the personal particulars of passport applicants. These cases arose out of Joint Surprise Checks (JSC) conducted by CBI on June 26 at PSKs at Parel and Malad along with the Vigilance Officers of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) Division, Ministry of External Affairs. During JSC, the office desks and mobile phones of the suspect officers were analyzed jointly by the CBI team and Vigilance Officers of MEA. The analysis of documents, social media chats and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID activities of suspect public servants had revealed various suspicious transactions by some officials of PSKs indicating demand and acceptance of undue advantage through the passport facilitation agents for issuance of passports as well as to get passports issued based on inadequate and forged documents. The suspect officers of PSKs, in connivance with various passport facilitation agents were allegedly receiving huge monetary undue advantages directly in their own bank accounts or in the bank accounts of their near and dear and family members from the passport facilitation agents to the tune of several lakhs of rupees. The CBI had earlier conducted searches on June 29 at about 33 locations of accused public servants and accused private persons situated at Mumbai and Nashik, which had led to recovery of several incriminating documents and digital evidence pertaining to passport documents, etc.
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