CBI has registered 12 cases against the against 14  Officials including Passport Assistants,Senior Passport Assistants posted at Passport Sews Kendras(PSKs) of Lower Parel and Malad, and eighteen (18) passport facilitation agents & touts on allegations that  officials posted at  PSK, Lower Parel, Mumbai and PSK Malad, Mumbai   working under Regional Passport Office (RPO) Mumbai, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) are indulging in collusive corruption with agents/touts.  

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/incomplete documents or by manipulating the personal particulars of passport applicants.

On June 26th .2024, Joint Surprise Checks (JSC) were conducted at PSK, Parel and PSK, Malad along with the Vigilance Officers of the Passport Seva Programme (PSP) Division, Ministry of External Affairs and officers of RPO Mumbai. During Joint Surprise Check (JSC), the office desks and mobile phones of the suspect officers were analyzed jointly by CBI team and Vigilance Officers of PSP, Division, MEA. 

The analysis of documents, social media chats and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) ID activities of suspect public servants 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/fake/forged documents. 

The suspect officers of PSKs, in connivance with various passport facilitation agents / touts, were allegedly  receiving huge monetary undue advantages directly in their own bank accounts or in the bank accounts of their near and dear, family members from the passport facilitation agents & touts  to the tune of several lakhs of rupees.

CBI conducted searches at about 33 locations of accused public servants and  accused private persons situated at Mumbai and Nashik, This  led to recovery of several incriminating documents , digital evidence pertaining to passport documents, etc

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Regional Passport Officer RPO Passport Assistant Senior Passport Assistants Ministry Of External Affairs Scam Forgery Forged Passport Fake Passport Cbi Central Bureau Of Investigation