Raises concern over misuse of passports issued to seafarers.
Concerned about the increase in cases of fake Continuous Discharge Certificate (CDC), the Mumbai Police has requested the ministry of shipping to make a few changes in the process of issuing these certificates, as they can be misused by anti-social elements.
CDCs are passports for seafarers issued by the shipping department.
“Apart from the recent bust of a gang that made fake CDCs, we had busted similar rackets in 2007 and 2009. It has been found that people who are not into shipping business also get these certificates to travel abroad illegally. If a person can make a forged CDC from India and enter some other country illegally, then someone from a foreign country too can do the same. Hence, taking coastal security into consideration, the authorities should make some fool-proof changes in the system,” said RK Padmanabhan, additional commissioner of police (South region).
The police have given a few recommendations to the ministry that may help curtail the menace of fake CDCs. “It has been observed that old CDCs does not have many security features. There is no expiry date as that of a passport, said Padmanabhan.
Another recommendation says that there should be a complete background check of the documents of a seafarer by the shipping company. If the company fails to do this, and if a person is found in possession of fake documents, then the company concerned should blacklisted.
The Yellow Gate police have busted a gang that used to make fake CDCs and arrested 12 persons. They used sell these certificates at Rs60,000.
The arrested persons have been identified as Binitsingh Panwar, Raju Samanto, Hemant Rao, Suresh Chavan, Shikha Das, Ashok Nirmal, Anil Rajput, Pavan Kohli, Rizwan Paujekar, Ganesh Patra, Ashwin Makwana and Amarjit Singh. The police have seized printing material and fake CDCs worth Rs31 lakh from the accused.
According to police inspector Sanjeevan Kamble, when the immigration officials checked crew members of MV Uniglory in January, they noticed that Panwar was in possession of fake CDCs.
A case was registered in this connection with the Yellow Gate police station. During the course of investigations, some other persons associated with the racket were also held. Most of the members of the gang were either agents who used to search for customers or people involved in making the fake CDCs, said deputy commissioner of police, Port Zone, Madhukar Kohe.
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