CHENNAI: Multiple enforcement agencies in Tamil Nadu have uncovered a modus operandi used by a few Lankan Tamils to fraudulently get Aadhaar cards based on which they get passports and travel abroad as Indian citizens, police sources said.
This is evidenced by the latest case of SL woman Mary Franciska, who was interrogated by Enforcement Directorate in Puzhal prison on Monday in relation to the money laundering aspect of a terrorist case being probed by the National Investigation Agency.
Sources said Mary Franciska is alleged to have come to India to remove funds from inoperative bank accounts in a bid to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. She managed to get an Indian passport in 2019 using house lease papers as the primary document, sources said, despite being a Canadian resident and having a Lankan passport. She was arrested by TN Q Branch CID in 2021 while entering India.
There are similar cases; for instance, in January, the Q Branch arrested K Jadhujiya, a Lankan who entered India on a tourist visa and later managed to get an Aadhaar and used it to get an Indian passport.
A year ago, a 50-year-old SL woman arrested by the city police at Chennai airport was found to have obtained an Aadhaar card in Tiruppur using which she got a PAN card, voter ID card and eventually an Indian passport. Another SL woman (46) was found to have married an Indian in West Bengal and with the help of local agents, managed to get Aadhaar, voter ID and Indian passport.
A 56-year-old Sri Lankan who entered India in 1984 with an SL Identity Certificate (IC) used his school leaving certificate from Ooty to obtain Aadhaar card, a voter ID and an Indian passport, police sources said.
According to investigators, these are violations of the Passport Act, 1967, apart from attracting charges of forgery and cheating.
Officials point out that the quick availability of Aadhaar without scrutiny makes it easy to obtain passports. When asked, a senior official of Regional Passport Office said they have no mechanism to detect if the source document provided is a fraudulent one and hence were duty bound to provide the passport to the applicant. They would revoke the passport only if they get proper evidence, the official added.