ED Probes Pakistani National’s Role In Bengal EPIC Scam, Passport And Hawala Links

<p>Kolkata, June 14 (IANS) 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.</p>
<p>According to ED sources, the agency has launched a deeper investigation following specific leads that point to Azad&rsquo;s key role in facilitating fake EPICs, especially for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.</p>
<p>Mullick is already facing two serious allegations — involvement in a fake Indian passport syndicate and operating an underground hawala network from Kolkata.</p>
<p>The latest findings suggest that Azad had managed to penetrate local administrative networks to obtain and distribute forged voter IDs.</p>
<p>The ED has formally sought details of 78 EPIC cardholders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The CEO&rsquo;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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He is believed to have voted in both the 2021 and 2024 elections. The ED has requested the CEO&rsquo;s office to furnish documents based on which Azad procured his EPIC.</p>
<p>The issue of foreign nationals acquiring Indian voter IDs has emerged as a politically charged matter in West Bengal, particularly ahead of next year&rsquo;s Assembly elections.</p>
<p>In a related development on Friday, the CEO&rsquo;s office reportedly removed Newton Das — a person holding dual citizenship of India and Bangladesh — from the electoral rolls.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Azad&rsquo;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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p class=”p1″><strong><em>(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)</em></strong></p>