Businessman's 900 Trips to Bangkok Linked to Fake Passport Fraud

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investigating a fake passport scam in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas and is focusing on the foreign travels of Vinod Gupta, a local businessman. An official revealed that Gupta, from Khardah, visited Bangkok nearly 900 times in the past decade, raising suspicions about his activities abroad.

Officials suspect these frequent trips are connected to a broader network involved in the fake passport racket. ED teams conducted searches in several locations in Nadia district and Kolkata, finding leads that led them to Gupta's residence for an extensive late-night search.

During the operation, several documents suggesting "vital and suspicious" information were seized. Gupta claimed his trips were related to his spice trading business, but investigators are examining potential connections to illegal forex transactions. The case took another turn last month with the arrest of Azad Mallik, a Pakistani national, and further searches following interrogations led to another arrest.