N Madhuprasad /Deccan Herald
 
Bangalore, Jun 19: With the number of international fake passport cases increasing in Bangalore, immigration authorities at Bangalore Airport suggest automated verification counters at the airport to curb the fake documents.

There have been 12 cases of fake passports registered by the airport police till May 2006 against 42 in 2005 in Bangalore. The immigration authorities have even found a good number of international fake passport cases. A majority of those caught have obtained passports through forgery and touts.

Normally, those who get passports by furnishing fake documents are those who do not have documents such as birth and residence certificates. This makes them resort to illegal means, a senior immigration officer said.

On June 16 two persons of Nepal origin were arrested at Bangalore Airport by immigration authorities for possession of fake passports. It is alleged that the two had obtained fake international passports from an agent in Bangalore.

In another case a British citizen Douglas Ian William Rankin who had overstayed in Goa for more than 10 years was arrested by immigration authorities at Bangalore Airport on December 24.

He was arrested when he was taking two 16-year-old boys along with him to the United Kingdom on fake Mexico passports. Similarly, a Kenyan national was arrested in October 2005 on charges of operating an international drug racket from Bangalore. It is alleged that he was involved in a fake-passport racket. He has been residing in Bangalore for more than a decade.

The accused Steverox who is in the wanted list of Narcotics Control Bureau and other international police agencies, including the Interpol said he smuggled drugs using fake passports.

Forgery Techniques

According to authorities, forgery is done through Photostat manipulation of the originals and superimposition of photos on stolen passports. A faker uses no hi-tech apparatus for faking passports but, ordinary blades and lamination machines, the officer noted. A fake passport cost anything between Rs 8,000 and Rs 16,000, according to police sources.

Immigration authorities say that it is difficult to conduct meticulous verifications as thousands of passports pass through the immigration counters everyday.

The passport office staff say that it is not their duty to verify the passports and travel documents at the airport. “Our main work is to issue passports in the office. We come into picture at airports only when immigration officials raise doubts about the documents,” an official said.

A few immigration officers suggest that automated verification counters at the airport would solve the problem.

The automated counter will verify the security features and find out whether the passport or travel documents are fake or genuine.

Hundreds of passports can be verified in few minutes using the automated counter unlike manual verification, the officers said. Such automated counters are used at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, the officer noted.

How it works

• Scanners capture documents
• The security features are checked against the templates stored in the database
• It analyses images; compares security patterns & features
• The verification is comprehensive & fully automated
• The verification can even check the tampering