‘Bangladeshi’ man held in fake passport case turns out to be Pakistani national

Rohit Khanna / TNN / Updated: Apr 30, 2025, 09:44 IST

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Ahammed Hossain Azad, initially believed to be from Bangladesh, was revealed in court to be a Pakistani national residing in India with a forged Bangladeshi passport. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) discovered his connections to associates in Pakistan and his involvement in preparing fake documents and money laundering.

‘Bangladeshi’ man held in fake passport case turns out to be Pakistani national

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KOLKATA: A suspected Bangladeshi national, arrested from Birati on April 15 in a fake passport case, turned out to be a Pakistani national, staying in India with a fake Bangladeshi passport, the ED said in court on Tuesday.

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Ahammed Hossain Azad (53) had constantly been in touch with his associates in Pakistan and he operated on their instructions, preparing forged documents here, officers told the court. He was engaged in money laundering, they added.

ED officers, who have found transactions of Rs 2.6 crore so far, have reasons to believe the amount was generated from issuing fake passports and forged documents to illegal immigrants.
Though Azad initially managed to convince the investigators that he was from Bangladesh, the investigators started suspecting his nationality after examining his WhatsApp chats and call records. During initial days of interrogation, Azad maintained his assumed identity and tried to pass off as a resident of Feni district in Bangladesh. "He tried to hoodwink us by suppressing his actual origin. He mentioned his two sons and his wife in Bangladesh. But an investigation revealed that the accused was from Pakistan. He had sneaked into Bangladesh and managed to get a Bangladeshi passport in 2017 in the name of Ahammed Hossain Azad," said an ED officer.
He entered India on a tourist visa in 2019 and managed to get Indian identity documents, such as Aadhaar, voter ID card and a passport.
The investigators said Azad had consistently been in touch with people in Pakistan. Immediately after he got hold of his fake Indian identity documents, he started spreading his network across the country, an officer said. He got in touch with a number of agents across India and helped illegal immigrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh to get visas to India and other countries.
To stay below the radar of the investigating agency, Azad reportedly opened a company as a façade for his illegal operations. "It is clear Azad was engaged in money laundering and his operations were a threat to national security," said ED's lawyer Bhaskar Prasad Banerjee in court. "Another case of fraud has been registered against him by the ED."
The court has remanded Azad in ED custody till May 8.