Woman trapped in racket at Passport Office

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: All that the young woman wanted was a passport so that she could be with her husband working abroad. But a small mistake by her parents while enrolling her at a primary school came as major impediment in her way to join her husband. Her parents, like many others in the state, had changed her date of birth so that she could become eligible for admission.The officials at the Passport Office here informed her that the date on her school-leaving certificate and that on her birth certificate issued by the hospital, where she was born, did not match and the mismatch had to be rectified if the passport needed to be delivered.That was when two ‘good samaritans’ came forward and offered to save her from the tiring formalities of the government office. They promised to get her a new rectified birth certificate from the birth and death registration wing of the City Corporation office, where they had contacts, an offer which she readily accepted, which turned out to be another big mistake.Now she is at the mercy of the police to avoid a criminal case being registered in her name for submitting forged documents for availing of a passport.The police on Tuesday arrested the ‘samaritans’, identified as Prasanth Babu, 30, of Anappara near Vithura and Harilal, 43, of Karimkulam near Kanjiramkulam, who are presently under judicial custody."The law says that the person who produces forged documents also should be included as an accused in such cases. But in most cases, they happen to be trapped by the agents who take them into confidence. And, interestingly, the reason for people seeking the help of agents springs from an innocuous  practice of changing the date of birth in the school certificate,’’ says Vanchiyoor Sub Inspector Suresh Babu, who is probing into the case.He stressed the need for an effective system to check the middlemen, who are abundant in number, lurking on the Passport Office premises. The police had on Tuesday arrested two persons involved in illegally providing forged certificates and other documents that are essential for obtaining passports, for the applicants.According to police, the arrested persons happen to be the members of a racket that was active on the Passport Office premises. There remains one more person, Kamalesh, the prime accused who forges documents on demand, to be arrested.Suresh Babu also told City Express that even though the police were aware of the situation, they were unable to take action since complaints needed to be registered formally in order to initiate action, which unfortunately does not happen often.Despite the fact that the activity of obtaining passports by producing forged certificates are aplenty, the number of cases being investigated by the police are in single digits, which in turn implies that officials within the Passport office itself are aiding the illegal business, he said.