Mumbai: One of the accused arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) for allegedly providing bogus PAN cards to illegal Bangladeshi immigrants has confessed that he had provided over 1,500 cards in the last eight years.
On March 13, the ATS arrested five Bangladeshi nationals in Jui Gaon, Panvel, after they were allegedly found to be staying without valid travel documents and in possession of fake PAN and Aadhaar cards. The ATS arrested a Kharghar resident and an Ulhasnagar man for supplying the fake identity cards to the five accused.
“The Ulhasnagar resident would offer PAN cards to people who did not have valid documents, and hence could not approach authorised PAN card centres. He would just need a photograph of his clients, and would provide a card for ₹700. By his own admission, he has been active for eight years and has sold over 1,500 cards,” an ATS officer said.
The police have seized 14 fake PAN cards and a large stack of blank cards from the residence of the accused.
The Kharghar resident, officers said, would find people in need of PAN cards and would supply in collaboration with the Ulhasnagar man. “The accused is from Nagpur and has been working as a tailor in Kharghar for five years. He has confessed to having obtained fake PAN cards from the Ulhasnagar resident and providing them to at least 25-30 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh till date, in exchange for a 50% cut from the Ulhasnagar resident’s earnings,” the officer said.
The five are being interrogated to find out if they are aware of any other illegal immigrants in Panvel or other areas. Possible links to terrorist organisations like the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh and the Ansarullah Bangla Team are also being probed. “The five accused would do small time menial labour for a living and an examination of their cell phones has indicated that they have been making a large number of calls to Bangladeshi numbers on a regular basis. Investigations are on,” another officer said.
