Bengaluru: A 31-year-old man allegedly obtained a passport using a fake rental agreement and concealed pending criminal cases before fleeing to Saudi Arabia. He had submitted an application claiming to be a resident of Bengaluru and even cleared police verification.An intelligence bureau input later revealed that he was facing criminal cases in Tamil Nadu, and that he had fabricated the rental agreement and used the passport to leave India.According to the complaint filed by police constable Bharamanna Pujari, who handles passport verification at Byappanahalli police station, the accused, Ahamed Saleem, was a resident of Pudupattinam in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.Saleem had applied for his passport renewal, and the station received the verification request from the passport office on Jan 16, 2025. The police inspector assigned Pujari for verification.Before he visited the address, the very next day, Saleem appeared at the station and provided all documents required, Pujari said. His antecedents were checked in the police database, but no matching record was found. Instead, details of a 60-year-old man from Maharashtra were displayed. Given the data mismatch, Pujari continued verification. He learnt that Saleem had obtained a passport bearing No. L7718471 from Tiruchirapalli in March 2014. As per the complaint, the passport’s validity expired, and for renewal, Saleem submitted an application at the passport office in Bengaluru by providing the address of a house at Krishnappa Garden in east Bengaluru.Saleem submitted photocopies of his old passport, PAN card, driving licence and rental agreement. The application was subsequently forwarded to the police commissioner’s office and then to the passport office after verification. A set of documents was stored at the police station.However, on Aug 4, 2025, a Subsidiary Multi-Agency Centre (SMAC) Intelligence Bureau input revealed that Saleem was facing heinous criminal cases in Tamil Nadu and that the cases were under trial. IB inputs prompted Pujari to visit the address mentioned in Saleem’s application. The house owner reportedly told him that no person by that name had ever lived there.Pujari alleged that Saleem had concealed the pending cases and created a fake rental agreement to establish a false address.A case was registered under the Passport Act and for cheating, forgery and other charges under the BNS on Sept 15. A senior officer said since Saleem is already in Saudi Arabia, a lookout notice will be issued against him for further action.
