Madras HC directs Q-Branch to file status report in Madurai passport scam

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday sought a status report from the Q-Branch CID in the 2019 Madurai passport scam case, wherein passports were allegedly illegally issued to many Sri Lankan and Indian nationals using forged documents.

A Bench comprising Justices R Mahadevan and J Sathya Narayana Prasad sought the report while hearing a contempt petition filed by advocate S Murugaganesan of Madurai, who alleged that the Q-Branch CID has not complied with an order passed by the court on February 11 last year in which the court directed the agency to complete the scam probe in three months.

During the hearing, Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan informed the judges that the Q-Branch has filed its preliminary chargesheet in the case before Judicial Magistrate IV of Madurai last month and it has been taken on record. The preliminary chargesheet was filed against 41 persons, he added. The Central government has granted sanction to prosecute only one official and declined sanction for the remaining officials, he further said.

Meanwhile, Murugaganesan’s counsel told the court that he has also filed an appeal challenging another order dated July 27, 2022, in which a single judge of the court had given a clean chit to the then Madurai Commissioner of Police S Davidson Devasirvatham in connection with the scam. The judges adjourned the contempt petition for two weeks for filing of the status report.

According to Murugaganesan, between February 1, 2019, and June 30, 2019, 53 persons, including refugees, obtained fake passports from the Regional Passport Office in Madurai by creating forged documents. “All 53 passports had been obtained only under the jurisdiction of Avaniyapuram police station in Madurai city,” he further alleged. When he filed a PIL to transfer the investigation to CBI, the court had directed the Q-Branch to complete the probe in three months. It was later extended to six more months. But the order has not been complied with yet, Murugaganesan alleged.