Immigrants securing PAN illegally

The Mumbai police has claimed that it is witnessing a surge in the number of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants having valid Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards and Aadhaar cards. Sources said that to tackle the problem, officials have approached the income tax department to introduce stricter verification methods before issuing PAN cards.

Sources in the special branch 2 of Mumbai police which deals with Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants said, defaulters are taking advantage of PAN card applications as these do not identify nationality of the individual. “The form that one needs to fill for PAN cards does not need any document to prove that one is an Indian national. Illegal immigrants, especially those from Bangladesh, easily obtain them and then use them as valid identity proof to get other documents,” said an officer.

He said that PAN applications needed a reference from a local resident, which they obtained from small-time political workers. “We arrested a woman recently who had applied for a PAN card after getting reference from a local worker of a political party. This reference had his signature and a photo and his own identity proof. When we contacted him, he had no clue about this and investigation revealed that his personal assistant was randomly giving out photocopies of original documents to those who wanted references for any paperwork,” he added.

To curb this, officials have started visiting these locations (in pockets of West Bengal) to double check on these documents. “There are six villages or talukas from where these documents are routinely sourced. We identified them as Hasnabad, Bongao, Maslandpur, Badhdah, Gobindpur and Swaroopnagar. Many illegal immigrants have either a birth certificate or a letter from the gram panchayat of these villages,” said the officer. “We have also written to the income tax department to routinely update the list of illegal immigrants either on their website or with their employees so that they don’t obtain PAN cards,” he said.