Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has accorded sanction for the prosecution of 11 people allegedly involved in false passport cases, Raj Niwas officials said on Sunday.

Saxena has given his consent for the prosecution of 11 people including agents and others accused in the cases of obtaining passports and travel documents by furnishing false and forged documents, on the basis of cases made against each of them under the provisions of the Passports Act, 1967, the officials said.

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With this, the Delhi Lieutenant Governor has granted prosecution sanction against 69 people, whose names have appeared in 46 FIRs under the said Act that came before him since April, 2023 till now.

While going through these cases in which sanction for prosecution was sought by the Home Department under Section 15 of the Passports Act for the offences enlisted in Section 12 of the Act for obtaining passports and travel documents like Visa, etc., on the basis of false, fabricated and forged documents, Saxena expressed concern that the agents who are co-accused and more often than not, kingpins of racket that take innocent people for a ride, remain untraced.

While dealing with these six cases, the Delhi Lieutenant Governor was informed that eight agents involved have not been traced as yet.

Earlier, 40 FIRs in which prosecution sanctions were granted had come to the
L-G between April to November 2023.

In the instant six cases, in which separate FIRs were lodged by Delhi Police between 2007 to 2019, the LG has expressed displeasure over delays and pointed out that in one such case, in which FIR was lodged on 12th June 2007, the file has been submitted for his consideration on November 30, 2023, after a lapse of more than 16 years.

He underlined that to avoid undue delays in processing such cases, instructions had been issued earlier, which were not being followed by the Delhi Police as well as the Home Department, and there had been an inordinate delay in the processing and submission of cases for seeking prosecution sanction.

Saxena directed the Delhi Government’s Home Department and Delhi Police to strictly adhere to the instructions, examine the delay in the matter and fix the responsibility of erring officers and officials.

He said Delhi Police may be advised to intensify its efforts to identify and trace the co-accused/agents involved in these cases, examine their culpability and expeditiously process the matters under the Passports Act.

Giving his approval for prosecuting the 11 accused, Saxena noted that all the cases are ‘fit’ for granting prosecution sanction under Section 15 of the Act, as materials placed on record and the facts of each case prima facie make out a case against accused persons.

The LG in one such case also ordered that Delhi Police be advised to examine the culpability of staff of RPO Mumbai as well as officials concerned of Maharashtra Police, which facilitated the issuance of two passports to the accused in Mumbai.

Saxena has given sanction for prosecution in 40 FIRs involving 52 passengers from April 1, 2023 to November 30, 2023, who were found to be in possession of passports and travel documents based on false, fabricated and forged documents. Besides 52 passengers, a sanction for prosecution was granted against 6 agents. It has been found that 17 agents are untraceable.