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Besides fake passports, ED uncovers Pak national’s role in fake voter ID racket in Kolkata

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Kolkata, June 14: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unearthed fresh evidence indicating the direct involvement of Azad Mullick, a Pakistani national arrested in Kolkata in April, in a major racket involving fake Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), in addition to earlier charges of passport fraud and hawala operations.

According to ED sources, the agency has launched a deeper investigation following specific leads that point to Azad’s key role in facilitating fake EPICs, especially for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Mullick is already facing two serious allegations — involvement in a fake Indian passport syndicate and operating an underground hawala network from Kolkata.

The latest findings suggest that Azad had managed to penetrate local administrative networks to obtain and distribute forged voter IDs.

The ED has formally sought details of 78 EPIC cardholders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

Investigators suspect that at least 55 of these cards were arranged by Azad, with recipients primarily from the bordering districts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

The CEO’s office has, in turn, asked the district magistrates of these areas to verify the identities of the listed individuals, and a comprehensive report is expected to be submitted to the ED by the end of this month.

During interrogation, Azad reportedly admitted to being listed as a voter in the Dum Dum-Uttar Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas — one of the seven assembly segments under the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat.

He is believed to have voted in both the 2021 and 2024 elections. The ED has requested the CEO’s office to furnish documents based on which Azad procured his EPIC.

The issue of foreign nationals acquiring Indian voter IDs has emerged as a politically charged matter in West Bengal, particularly ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.

In a related development on Friday, the CEO’s office reportedly removed Newton Das — a person holding dual citizenship of India and Bangladesh — from the electoral rolls.

Das, who was active in the student movement in Bangladesh last year, had been registered as a voter in the Kakdwip Assembly constituency of South 24 Parganas district.

Azad’s case, however, is even more complex. When the ED arrested him in April, seized documents initially indicated that he was a Bangladeshi national who had acquired Indian documents — including a passport — using fake credentials.

But on April 29, the ED informed a special court in Kolkata that Mullick had confessed to originally being a Pakistani citizen. He reportedly admitted to first obtaining Bangladeshi citizenship through forged documents, and subsequently using the same modus operandi to acquire Indian identity documents.

Crime

Kolkata law college rape: Monojit Mishra made 16 calls in 3 hours, police probe details

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Kolkata, July 4: Monojit Mishra, one of the three accused and reportedly the main architect in the law college student gang-rape case, made as many as 16 calls in three hours after the crime incident took place on the evening of June 25.

Those call details are currently being examined by the investigating sleuths, and at the same time, the process of interrogation of those with whom Mishra conversed during that period has started.

The tower locations of the mobile phones of the three accused, namely Mishra, Jaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, during that period are being tracked by the investigating officials to have an idea of the places they went to immediately after the crime.

Sources said that one of the calls that Mishra made from his mobile phone during that period was to a member of the governing body of the same college. Although the governing body member concerned has already been questioned by the investigating officials, the latter are not willing to disclose anything on the interrogation findings for the sake of the investigation.

This week, the investigation into the case was handed over to the Detective Department of the city police, which has started the probe process by adding new sections against the three prime accused persons.

Before Detective Department took over the charge of the investigation, the three accused persons were charged under sections on rape. However, with the Detective Department taking over the investigation sections relating to abduction and causing injuries with weapons were also slapped on the three.

On Friday morning, around 3 a.m., the sleuths of the detective department reached the campus of the law college in Kolkata along with the three accused for reenactment of the incident.

Sources said that the findings of the reenactment process will be cross-checked with the statement given by the victim soon after the event of sexual harassment took place last week. Earlier, a member of the special investigation team, which was initially investigating the matter, had gone to the college campus with the victim for reenactment purposes.

The woman, a student of the South Calcutta Law College, was allegedly raped by two senior students and an alumnus of the institute in the guard’s room on June 25. Apart from the three, the college guard has been arrested in the case so far.

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Crime

ED raids eight locations linked to ex-Cong MLA Amba Prasad in Jharkhand

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Ranchi, July 4: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday carried out raids at eight locations linked to close associates of former Congress MLA Amba Prasad from Jharkhand’s Barkagaon Assembly constituency.

The raids are part of an ongoing money laundering probe involving a prominent company engaged in coal transportation, infrastructure, and the power sector.

According to sources, simultaneous searches were conducted in Ranchi, Hazaribagh, and Barkagaon.

Among the locations searched are the residence of Amba Prasad’s aide Sanjeet in Kishoreganj (Ranchi) and the homes of her personal assistants — Sanjeev Sao, Manoj Dangi, and Pancham Kumar — in Barkagaon.

Security forces have been deployed in large numbers at all the premises where raids are being conducted.

This move comes months after the ED conducted a similar crackdown between March 12 and March 14 this year, targeting Amba Prasad, her father, and former Minister Yogendra Sao, brother Ankit Raj, and several other relatives and associates.

During those raids, the agency had seized Rs 35 lakh in cash, digital devices, fake stamps of banks and government offices, handwritten receipts, diaries, and other incriminating documents.

Officials believe that the current searches are based on evidence and leads gathered during the earlier raids. The ED is now closely examining documents related to financial transactions, land deals, and mining activities.

Ten companies reportedly registered in the names of Amba Prasad and her family members are under scrutiny.

Earlier, the ED had questioned Amba Prasad, her father Yogendra Sao, and her brother Ankit Raj at its zonal office in Ranchi in connection with the same case.

Amba Prasad was elected to the Jharkhand Assembly from Barkagaon in 2019 on a Congress ticket. Her parents — Yogendra Sao and Nirmala Devi — have also represented the same constituency in the past.

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Crime

Delhi Police arrest notorious cyber stalker in Palam

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CRIME

New Delhi, July 2: A 21-year-old man was arrested in Delhi’s Palam village for allegedly harassing a college student by creating fake Instagram accounts and using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate objectionable content.

The accused was persistently stalking and defaming the victim, a college-going girl, through multiple fake Instagram profiles, Amit Goel, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South West District, said in a statement.

The complainant approached the Cyber Police Station, West District, on June 16, reporting that the accused was daily creating new accounts using her photographs, posting them with derogatory captions, and targeting her and her followers.

Acting on the complaint, the police registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

“In view of the seriousness of the matter, a dedicated team led by SI Priyanka was formed to identify and apprehend the accused,” the statement added.

A team of PS Cyber, South-West District, arrested the notorious cyber stalker and recovered the smartphone used in the commission of the offence, the statement read.

During the investigation, it came to the fore that the accused was impersonating a female using a profile picture taken from the victim’s public Instagram account, the police said.

The police said the accused further used AI tools to convert the images into sexually explicit content and uploaded these edited pictures through fake Instagram stories.

Despite efforts to mask his identity by not linking any accounts to verifiable mobile numbers or Gmail IDs, the cyber team used advanced technical analysis to track the suspect to the Palam area of South-West Delhi. Multiple raids were conducted before he was successfully arrested.

The accused, whose identity has been withheld, confessed to the crime during interrogation, the police statement read.

Further investigation is underway.

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