Crime branch busts passport gang, 11 held in Chennai
CHENNAI: Sleuths of the Central Crime Branch (Fake Passport Wing) have arrested 11 men for preparing fake passports for Sri Lankan Tamils to travel to other countries.
Based on a tip-off, they raided a travel agency in Triplicane and arrested M Veerakumar (47), M Balu (45), S Karthikeyan (40) and V Saravanan (43) and seized 80 fake Indian passports and 12 fake Sri Lankan passports.
“The team bought expired passports and inserted into them the photos and names of the Sri Lankans who wanted to travel to other countries” said an officer.Veerakumar, kingpin of the business, has many cases pending against him, including charges of cheating in real estate.
“Veerakumar contested the 2016 Assembly elections in Sriperumbudur,” the officer said.Based on information, three Sri Lankan Tamils - J Balaji (40), J Kunalan (48) and P Krishnamoorthy, and A Sakthivelu (47), T Suresh (50), A Umar Hussain (47) and A Amjad Kumar (36) from Tamil Nadu were arrested.