Postman held in fake passport scam one year before retiring

Chennai: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





A day after the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested a head constable in a fake passport scam, a 56-year-old postman has been booked for helping the policeman, Murugan, deliver the passports. The suspect, identified as Dhanasekaran, is employed at the Mount Road post office. He was assigned to deliver letters to Pudupet and Chindatripet. After serving for more than 30 years, he was about to retire in a year's time, police sources said.

CCB police on Monday had arrested K Murugan, 49, attached to the Intelligence wing of Chintadripet police station. His arrest came after the arrest of Ramalingam from Pudukottai, a kingpin in the fake passport scam. Murugan was assigned the job of verifying addresses of passport applicants, but he approved passports without visiting the applicants' houses. He had been taking money from Ramalingam for this, said police.

Preliminary inquires revealed that Murugan took Dhanasekaran's help to get the passports before they were delivered. Dhanasekaran took the passports that came in speed post and gave them to Murugan. The addresses mentioned in these passports were fake, police said. “He was sometimes assigned to hand over the passports directly to Ramalingam, the racket's kingpin. He was paid a sum of `500 to `1,000 for each passport,“ said an investigating officer.

So far, Dhanasekaran has delivered at least 15 passports, which police have found to be fake. Police have grilled a few cops from the intelligence wing, sources said.