Sloppy checks helped terror suspects

HYDERABAD: The Special Branch of the state police has apparently not abided by the meticulous checks prescribed before a passports is issued. This has allowed people with suspected terror links slip in and out of the city easily.
More often than not, the regional passport office here receives as many as 40 police reports on clearances at a go, on a single sheet of paper, which is not how it should happen.
Besides, the Special Branch report merely states the applicant’s name, whether he/she has been cleared and the ‘secret number’ issued by the Special Branch.
This is in spite of a prescribed format issued by the ministries of home affairs and external affairs in 1993, wherein nine specific queries about an applicant must be satisfactorily answered after proper verification before a police clearance is given. Till October last year, the regional passport office issued passports based on very sketchy verification and the prescribed format was not followed to the T.
Consequently, when inquiries about passport holders with suspected terrorist links have been forwarded, the passport office here has failed to produce detailed police verification reports based on which the passports were issued.
Mohammed Usman, who was picked up by the Bangalore Police on Monday on suspicion of involvement in the twin blasts in Mumbai is a case in point. Usman, who applied for a passport under the name Mohammed Faheem, was issued a passport on June 18, 1997. This was following ‘verification clearance’ by the Intelligence Bureau on May 19, 1997, and the Special Branch on June 25 1997.
However, whether or not facts given in the application form matched during the field visit by the police — a mandatory check as per the prescribed format — is not mentioned in the verification report.
“Over the years, police verification of passport applicants has not been as per the prescribed format,� regional passport officer V Sraman acknowledged.
For instance, unless the police verified if the same person whose photo was on the application form was the one living at the address given, there was no way of checking if the passport was going to be issued to an impostor, the regional passport officer added.
However, since November 2002, verification is being done as per the prescribed format where in nine checks about the antecedents of applicants are done. The new verification form now also requires the constables to obtain a passport size photograph of the applicant and the thumb impression.