Lankan Tamils held in fake passport racket

Chennai, Dec 2 (UNI) Police arrested seven Sri Lankan Tamils and a local in connection with a fake passport case at Pallikaranai, near here.

Senthil Nathan (32), Siva Kumar (29), Maheswaran (32), Rajendran (21), Manoramanan(30), Gajandran(29), Suresh Kumar (30) and Ramamurthy (25) were arrested after a raid last night on a house in in Sankarapuram area following a tip off, police said.

Fake passports, official stamps of banks and police officers, Consul Generals, immigration stamps, computer, scanners and printers, embossing machines, chemicals, lamination sheets and Rs 3.5 lakh in Indian currency besides 1,000 dollar were seized during the raid.

The gang had been operating for over a year, police said and added they were looking into the money collected by the gang from unsuspecting clients for issuing fake passports.

Police said there could be more gang members involved in the racket. House-owner Govindarajan was being questioned in connection with the case.

A local court later remanded the arrested persons in judicial custody, the police added.

UNI