‘official passport forgery’

Mastermind loses job, finally

The government has finally dismissed from service for misconduct the director of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP), Munshi Muyeed Ekram, known as the mastermind of the "official passport forgery" scam.  The secretary of the Security Service Division of the home ministry, Farid Uddin Ahmad Chowdhury, issued a gazette notification in this regard on October 19.  Munshi Muyeed Ekram, who was suspended from his post of director of DIP after his involvement in the scam was proved, has been dismissed from service as per Clause 3 (B) of the Government Servants (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1985, the gazette notification says. In the gazette notification Farid Uddin said Munshi Muyeed Ekram issued a number of official passports to non-officials not entitled to get official passports and helped them go abroad, particularly Turkey. This has tarnished the image of the country abroad.

 The division of the home ministry formed an inquiry committee to look into the matter after filing a departmental case on August 30, 2015. After inquiring into the matter, the committee primarily accused Munshi Muyeed Ekram of misconduct for his direct involvement in the "official passport forgery" scandal.

But Munshi Muyeed Ekram claimed he was innocent and urged the authorities to appoint an inquiry officer from the ministry on the matter and the ministry appointed a joint secretary.  The inquiry officer found Ekram's involvement in the scandal and advised his dismissal from service on charge of misconduct. Finally, the Security Service Division’s secretary dismissed him from service. On 7 July, 2015, The Independent published a report titled "Official passports ‘for sale’ at DIP, five officials involved in racket". The report spoke of a major racket involving DIP officials, who had allegedly issued at least 1,000 official passports to ineligible civilians. And this was done in connivance with agents of different recruitment agencies from November 2014 to April 2015 in exchange for hefty bribes, a preliminary investigation by DIP has found. The passport department suspended Ekram, an assistant director and two employees of DIP after the preliminary investigation confirmed their involvement.

official passport forgery

Mastermind loses job, finally

The government has finally dismissed from service for misconduct the director of the Department of Immigration and Passport (DIP), Munshi Muyeed Ekram, known as the mastermind of the official passport forgery scam. The secretary of the Security Service Division of the home ministry, Farid Uddin Ahmad Chowdhury, issued a gazette notification in this regard on October 19. Munshi Muyeed Ekram, who was suspended from his post of director of DIP after his involvement in the scam was proved, has been dismissed from service as per Clause 3 (B) of the Government Servants (Discipline Appeal) Rules, 1985, the gazette notification says. In the gazette notification Farid Uddin said Munshi Muyeed Ekram issued a number of official passports to non-officials not entitled to get official passports and helped them go abroad, particularly Turkey. This has tarnished the image of the country abroad. The division of the home ministry formed an inquiry committee to look into the matter after filing a departmental case on August 30, 2015. After inquiring into the matter, the committee primarily accused Munshi Muyeed Ekram of misconduct for his direct involvement in the official passport forgery scandal. But Munshi Muyeed Ekram claimed he was innocent and urged the authorities to appoint an inquiry officer from the ministry on the matter and the ministry appointed a joint secretary. The inquiry officer found Ekrams involvement in the scandal and advised his dismissal from service on charge of misconduct. Finally, the Security Service Divisions secretary dismissed him from service. On 7 July, 2015, The Independent published a report titled Official passports for sale at DIP, five officials involved in racket. The report spoke of a major racket involving DIP officials, who had allegedly issued at least 1,000 official passports to ineligible civilians. And this was done in connivance with agents of different recruitment agencies from November 2014 to April 2015 in exchange for hefty bribes, a preliminary investigation by DIP has found. The passport department suspended Ekram, an assistant director and two employees of DIP after the preliminary investigation confirmed their involvement.