Mangaluru: Police have arrested Pradeep, a staff member of Vittla Police Station, and Shakti Das, who obtained a passport by presenting false documents, on charges of committing fraud and forging signatures in the police verification report of a passport application.
Shakti Das had applied for a passport in February 2025. But the application was rejected because the address he had given during police verification did not match the documents. He then re-applied in June.
Pradeep, the station officer in charge of reviewing this re-application, had prepared a fake report in the name of the concerned beat officer, Sabu Mirzi, so that it would not come to his notice. He had also forged Sabu Mirzi's signature and had his superiors recommend him to get a passport and a police clearance certificate. It is said that he later destroyed the relevant files so that no one would know about this illegal act.
This serious lapse came to light when the office records were checked on December 19. A case has been registered against both of them for committing criminal breach of trust in obtaining a passport, an important identity card of the central government.
A case has been registered against the accused at Vittla police station. Accused Pradeep has been taken into custody and produced before the court, which has remanded him in judicial custody.
