Overview

• Ahmed Hossain Azad, a Pakistani national, was arrested in West Bengal on April 15, 2025, for his role in a multi-crore fake passport racket.
• Azad posed as a Bangladeshi and later as an Indian using forged documents to settle in India and facilitate similar frauds for others.
• The ED has seized two mobile phones containing 20,000 pages of WhatsApp chats and voice messages, some indicating links to Pakistan and potential terror funding.
• Officials froze a ₹2.62 crore bank account linked to Azad, suspecting its use in hawala operations to route funds potentially tied to terror activities.
• The ED and NIA are jointly investigating Azad's network and have sought an extended custody to probe his Pakistani contacts and financial flows.