Two held in Bhopal for providing fake passport to Akshardham attack accused

Two persons including a passport agent have been arrested by the Madhya Pradesh CID in connection with a fake passport made for Sameer alias Nawab Pathan, an accused in the 2002 Akshardham temple attack case.

Confirming the arrests on Monday, additional director general of police (CID), MR Krishna said all the documents used for making the bogus passport have also been found to be fake. The accused was killed in an encounter with the Ahmedabad police in 2002 and was identified as Sameer alias Nawab Pathan from the passport recovered from his pocket.

Since the passport was made in Bhopal, the matter was handed over to the CID here. During investigations, it was found that one Subhash Sharma, a resident of Shajapur and passport agent Abu Baker had helped in making the bogus passport, following which the two were arrested on Sunday.

Madhya Pradesh home minister Uma Shankar Gupta said the matter was being probed further and added that action will be taken against those found guilty. A group of militants allegedly belonging to banned Lashkar-e-Taiba had attacked the temple in Ahmedabad on September 24, 2002, killing 37 people and leaving scores others injured.