Mohammad Anas Siddiqui and Tanvi Seth.
The Lucknow Police on Tuesday said that Tanvi Seth, who had accused a passport official of humiliating her and her husband over their inter-faith marriage, had not been living in the Lucknow address she had mentioned in her application for the past year. They have filed an “adverse report” to the passport office regarding the same.
An adverse report is submitted by police when they cannot verify details mentioned in the application. In such a case, the applicant will have to appear before passport officials to explain the unverifiable information.
Last Wednesday, Seth had tweeted to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj alleging harassment by an official at the Lucknow Passport Seva Kendra. The next day, the regional passport officer had handed over passports to her and her husband, Anas Siddiqui, under the “post verification category”. Vikas Mishra, a senior superintendent and and granting officer at the Lucknow Passport Seva Kendra, had allegedly asked Siddiqui to convert to Hinduism and Tanvi to change her name in all her documents, and yelled at her when she refused to do so. He was transferred to Gorakhpur the next day. However, he had claimed that he did not misbehave and was only following protocol.
“When a passport is given to a person, the authority lies with the Regional Passport Office (RPO). Police only conduct the verification. On June 18, we were asked to verify the documents. It is a rule that the passport applicant should be residing at the given address for at least one year. Tanvi Seth has not been living at her Lucknow address for the last one year. Speaking to other people, we found out that she has been living in Noida,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Lucknow, Deepak Kumar said at a press meet.
“We have sent the report to the RPO, which will decide the next course of action. Now they might get the verification done from Noida,” he added.
When contacted, Regional Passport Officer Piyush Verma said that while they have not received the report yet, he was aware that it has been filed. He added, “This is not a rare case. We receive hundreds of adverse reports every day. In such cases, we either issue a showcause notice or send the file for re-verification. We will see what is in the report and then decide the next course of action.”
Verma said there was little possibility of the passports being cancelled. The couple could not be reached for comments.