In a major bust, the Madhya Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Afghan national Sohbat Khan in Jabalpur for allegedly running a passport racket using forged documents. Khan, who had been living illegally in India for over ten years, is accused of creating fake Indian passports for Afghan citizens by fabricating identity and residential proofs. He secured his own Indian passport in 2020 and extended the service to associates in West Bengal and Chhattisgarh. Two others—Dinesh Garg, a forest guard posted in the Collector’s Office, and Mahendra Kumar Sukhdan—were also arrested for aiding the operation.
Investigators have uncovered 20 suspicious cases linked to the racket, involving transactions worth around ₹10 lakh. Khan had embedded himself in the local community by obtaining a driving license in 2015 and marrying a local woman. Beneficiaries include Afghan nationals Akbar and Iqbal, who received passports tied to fake Jabalpur addresses. The ATS is expanding its probe to identify officials and individuals who helped fabricate documents, manipulate police verifications, and retrieve passports under false identities, raising serious concerns about loopholes in India’s identity verification systems
