Bengaluru police on Saturday arrested a web designer and a TV actor for sending a fake recommendation letter to passport office bearing the signature of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The accused brothers had applied for a passport but failed to submit the proper documents. When officials rejected their applications, they mailed the fake recommendation letter to the passport office through speed post.
The arrested have been identified as Surya Roshan alias Imran (21) and his elder brother Arya Roshan alias Imthiyaz (27). They are residents of Sarakki in JP Nagar.
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Following a complaint lodged by the Regional Passport Office, the police raided their house and found fake letter heads of Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh and other ministers and also a fake stamp of Government of India.
A senior police officer said that Surya and Arya had applied for passports in 2012 and had even received an appointment. The officials in the passport office in Koramangala had rejected the applications since the documents were improper and did not match their names and date of birth.
They again applied for passports recently and sent a fake recommendation letter bearing the forged signature of Sushma Swaraj and her photo was printed in the letterhead. In the letter, the accused said that the officials should consider their application since their family was close to Sushma. Realising it was a fake letter, the passport office informed Koramangala police.
On April 10, the accused were asked to come to the passport office to collect the passport and were detained by the police when they reached.
During questioning, Surya confessed that he had experience in web designing and computer application course and had downloaded the central ministers’ signatures, photos and letterheads along with their office addresses. The police are now investigating whether the two had submitted similar letters elsewhere.