ED seeks info from MEA on visa granted to Pakistani citizen arrested in Kolkata

Kolkata, June 3 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought information from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the visa granted to Azad Mullick, the Pakistani infiltrator who was arrested from Kolkata by the ED officials earlier this year in connection with fake passport and hawala rackets.

Azad, originally a Pakistan citizen, first arranged for Bangladeshi citizenship using forged documents and thereafter came to India on a legal visa.

However, after coming to India, soon he arranged fake Indian identity documents for himself, including an Indian passport. This was again done with the use of forged documents, and he even started running a fake passport and hawala business from his rented accommodation in the northern outskirts of Kolkata.

Sources said that the ED sought information from the MEA on the documents produced by Azad, then as a Bangladeshi citizen, while applying for the Indian visa.

The ED also sought the details of the staff of MEA who examined Azad’s visa application at that point in time.

Azad’s original name as a Pakistani citizen was Azad Hossain, which he changed to Ahammed Hossain Azad when he managed Bangladeshi citizenship through unfair means.

Finally, in the fake Indian passport, his name was mentioned as Azad Mullick. During his arrest, two fake EPIC cards, multiple fake driving licences, and four fake birth certificates were also seized by the Investigating Officers from his possession.

The Investigating Officers are now probing Azad’s possible links with different terror groups.

Recently, the ED had informed a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata that some highly sensitive information from individual and group chats in WhatsApp was secured from the mobile phones of Azad.

These discoveries gave the Investigating Officers a clear idea of the individuals in neighbouring Bangladesh who were recipients of the money routed through Hawala from Kolkata.

Considering that the activities and conversations in certain groups were quite suspicious, ED officials are now investigating whether the money routed through hawala to Bangladesh was used in terror funding or not.

--IANS

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