26 passport brokers jailed

A mobile court yesterday detained 26 illegal passport brokers from the premises of the Immigration and Passport Office at Agargaon and sentenced them to different jail terms.

The mobile court, assisted by Rapid Action Battalion-2, jailed them as they confessed to their crime, said Fazlul Haque, operation officer of Rab-2.

Executive Magistrate Iqbal Hasan conducted the one-hour drive from 12:30pm.

Fazlul said the brokers used to promise people to get their passports done in short time without police verification, hassle of filling up and submitting forms.

The brokers used to harass passport seekers until they agreed to their proposal. Their victims also had to pay a handsome amount for their "services", he said.

Passport applicants were occasionally duped by brokers, and other times they received their passport after much difficulty, he said.

The brokers continued to engaged in such illegal activities for long defying warning by the authorities, the Rab officials said.