Hyderabad: Police here on Monday arrested two personnel of the Special Branch and a broker for allegedly arranging Indian passports for illegal migrants from Myanmar.

Special Branch constable Basheer Ahmed and home guard S.K. Saleem were arrested along with passport broker Ahsan Zia Ansari in the old city area.

Ansari, a native of Mumbai settled here since 2003, was taking Basheer's help for obtaining Indian passports for illegal immigrants of Myanmar, said Joint Commissioner of Police T. Prabhakar Rao. Saleem had allegedly colluded with them by diverting the verification of passport applications to Basheer.

For this, the broker used to bribe the two Special Branch personnel. One original Indian passport belonging to Ansari, copies of passport applications, Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards, birth certificates and affidavits and mobile phones from all the three accused were seized, the official said. Police have registered a case and were trying to collect evidence as to how many such passports were arranged by the accused and identify the people who were issued the passports and their current locations.

"From the information gathered so far, these illegal immigrants are obtaining Indian passports by paying heavy amounts and visiting Saudi Arabia on tourist visa," a police statement said. The arrests were made during investigations following the arrest of six people including two Bangladeshis and a Pakistani and a Myanmarese on Aug 13.

They were arrested for allegedly sending people abroad on illegal passports. Police said Mohammed Nazeer, a Bangladesh-born Pakistani national, was in touch with a leader of Bangladesh-based terror outfit Harkat-ul Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) and he also helped Waqas, an accused in 2013 Dilsukhnagar bomb blast in Hyderabad, in crossing the border to Bangladesh.
PTI