Kolkata, Oct 22 (IANS): Central Bureau of Investigation sleuths, investigating the fake passport scam in West Bengal and Sikkim, suspect the tentacles of this racket might not be just within the passport department but spread in other departments of the Union and state governments.

Sources said that already among the 25 individuals against whom CBI has registered, as many as 14 are associated with the passport department.

However, the central agency sleuths believe a racket of such magnitude could not have been run just by involving the individuals associated with the passport department and may spread much wider.

Since, sources said, the police verification report plays an important role in issuance of a new passport, the possibilities of a section of police in West Bengal and Sikkim in the said racket cannot be ruled out.

The CBI sleuths, sources added, are now trying to plunge deeper in the scam and identify its spread in the other government departments.

Already, the agency has got a lead and uncovered links of an international woman trafficking racket behind this scam. The central agency sleuths have secured some definite clues of this link following the arrest of Varun Singh Rathor, from Naxalbari under Siliguri sub-division in Darjeeling district of West Bengal few days back.

The suspicion of the CBI on this count deepened as majority of the fake passports recovered from Rathor were that of women mainly hailing from the northern West Bengal and adjacent Sikkim.